
Book ,^ri 






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% THE EARLY DAYS 



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AND 



EARLY SURVEYS 



OF 



EAST NEW JERSEY. 



By WILLIAM ROOME, 

OF P EQ UAl tl t C, N. J. 



<S' 



MORRISTOWN, N. J. : 
The Jerseyman" Steam Press Print. 

1883. 



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THE EARLY DAYS 



AND 



?7/ 



EARLY SURVEYS 



OF 



EAST NEW JERSEY. 



By WILLIAM ROOME, 



OF PEQUANAC, N. J. 



MORRISTOWN, N. J. : 
Thp: Jerseyman" Steam Press Print. 



I. 




1955 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER I. 
From the ist Grant of Charles II to the Duke of York, to the Sur- 
render by the Proprietors of Their Right of Government p. 3. 

CHAPTER H. 
Indian Titles p. 19. 

CHAPTER III. 
Early Explorations. — Reading's Journal P- 23. 

CHAPTER I\^ 
Ramapo Troubles P-3i- 

CHAPTER V. 
Division of Lands. — Early Surveying, &c P- 37 • 

CHAPTER YI. 
Miscellaneous. Records During the Revolution. Timber Thieves. 

Anecdotes, &c. &:c ." P- 47. 



Early Days and Early Surveys. 



CHAPTER I. 

From the first g7'a)it of Charles IT, to the Duke of York, to the surrender 
by the Proprietors of their right of Goverft/nent. 



As the history of the land titles of any State or section of country and of 
its early settlement must ever be of interest to the inhabitants thereof, espec- 
ially to those who are owners of its soil, and as there seems to be no clear 
idea in the public mind as to the origin of the land titles in New Jersey, (the 
vacant or unoccupied lands often being spoken of as Government or State 
lands, when neither the U. S. Government or the State ever owned any right 
in the soil of New Jersey except that acquired by purchase in the same man- 
ner and of the same parties as that purchased by individuals), the object of 
the foUov/ing articles will be to give a history of the early titles to the lands of 
the State, or more particularly to the eastern division thereof, from whom they 
emanated, showing their value as titles in fee to their holders, the mode of 
early surveying, together with some early exploration of the State, anecdotes 
of prominent or singular men, bits of local histor)^ and such other matters 
pertaining to the olden time as may be instructive and of mterest to the gen- 
eral reader. 

Passing by then, all history of the settlement of the State by the Dutch 
on its eastern shores, in the vicinity of New York, and of the settlements by 
the Swedes on the Delaware, (who eventually secured their titles from the 
Board of Proprietors), we come at once to the grant of Charles II., (who as 
King of England, claimed a large part of the American continent, by virtue 
of Cabot's discoveries, and which, according to the accepted theories of that 
day, gave him an all-sufficient title therefor) to his brother, the Duke of York 
and Albany, which grant or patent is the basis of all titles to the lands now 
possessed and owned in the state of New Jersey, except a few patents granted 
by the Dutch during the time they held Manhattan Island or New York.* 

As this, then, is the ground-work of New Jersey titles, we quote the m- 
strument entire, except part of the legal forms and repetitions : 

" Charles the Second, by the grace of God, King of England, Scotland, 
France and Ireland, defender of the faith, &c. To all to whom these presents 
shall come, greeting : — Know ye, that we, for divers good causes and consid- 
erations us thereto moving, have of our especial Grace, certain knowledge and 
meer motion, given and granted, and by these presents for us, our Heirs and 
Successors, do give and grant unto our dearest Brother James, Duke of York, 

* Whlteliead, in Ills " East Jersey under tlie Proprietors," ^ves a list taken from 
O'Callaghan's blstory ot the New Netlierland,-!, or tvveaty-t&ree patents Issued by the 
Dutch Governor In East Jersey from 1630 to 1064. The lands all He in what was formerly 
Bergen County, and the most of them were about fifty acre lots. 



his Heirs and Assiti^ns, all that part of the main land of New England, Begin- 
ning^ at a certain place called or known by the name of St. Croix, next ad- 
joining new Scotland in America, and from thence extending along the sea- 
coast unto a certain Place called Petuaqiiine or I-emaqiiid, and so up the riv- 
er thereof to the farthest head of the same as it tendeth northward, and ex- 
tending from thence to the river of Kenebeque and so upwards by the short- 
est course to the River of Canada Northward, And also all that Island or Is- 
lands commonly called by several name or names of Matowacks, or Long Island, 
situate, Iving and being toward the west of Cape Cod and the Narrow-Higan- 
setts, abutting upon the main land between the two rivers there, called or known 
by the several names of Connecicut or Hudson's River, together also with the 
said River called Hudson's River, and all the land from the west side of Con- 
necticut to the East side of Delaware Bay, and also all those several Islands 
called or known by the names of Martha's Vineyard and Nantukes, or other- 
wise Nantukett, together with all the lands, Islands, Soils, Rivers, Harbours, 
Mines, Minerals, Quarries, Woods, Marshes, Waters, Lakes, Fishings, Hawk- 
ings, Huntings and F"owlings, and all other Royalties, Profits, Commodities and 
Heredetaments to said several Islands, Lands and Premises belonging and ap- 
pertaining, with their and every their appurtenances, and all our Estate, Right, 
Title, Interest, Benefit, Advantage, claim and demand of, in or to the said Lands 
and Premises or any part or Parcel thereof * * together with the yearly and 
the other Rents, Revenues and profits of all and singular the said Premises and 
everv part and parcel thereof, To Have and to Hold ''' * unto our dearest 
Bro;her, James, Duke of York, his Heirs and Assigns forever * * to beholden 
of us, our Heirs and Successors, as of our manner of East Greenwich in our 
County of Kent, in free and common Soccage and not in Capitie nor by 
Knight Service, yielding and rendering ; And the said James, Duke of York, 
doth for himself, his Heirs and assigns, covenant and promise to yield and 
render unto our Heirs and Successors, of and for the same yearly and every 
year. Forty Beaver Skins when they shall be demanded or within ninety days 
after. And we do further * * give and grant unto our said dearest 
Brother, James, the Duke of York, * * full and absolute Power and auth- 
ority to correct, punish, pardon, govern and will all such the subjects of us, 
our Heirs and Successors, as shall from time to time adventure themselves into- 
any of the Parts or Places aforesaid, or that shall or do at any time hereafter 
inhabit within the same according to such Laws, Orders, Ordinances, Directions 
and Instruments, as by our said dearest Brother or his assigns shall be estab- 
lished ; * * as well m all causes and matters. Capital and Criminal, as Civil, 
both Marine and others ; so always as the said Statutes, Ordinances and Pro- 
ceedings be not contrary to, but as near as conveniently may be agreeable to 
the Laws, Statutes and Government of this our Realm of England, and saving 
and reserving to us, our Heirs and Successors, the Receiving, Hearing and de- 
termining of the appeal and appeals of all or any person or persons of, in or 
belonging to the Territories or Islands aforesaid, or in touching any judgment 
or sentence to be there made or given. And further that it shall and may be 
lawful to and for our said dearest Brother, his Heirs and assigns * * to 
make * * Governors * * and to discharge the same * * to ordain 
and establish laws * * and Magistracy fit and necessary for and concern- 
ing the Government of the Territories. * * And we do further, by our 
special grace, * * grant, ordain and declare that such Governors, officers 
and Ministers * * shall and may have full Power and authority to use and 
exercise Martial law in cases of Rebellion. * ■•• And we do further by 
these Presents, grant unto our said dearest Brother * * that it shall and 
maybe lawful to and for the said James, Duke of York, His Heirs and assigns 
* * from time to time, to admit such or so many person or persons to trade 
and trafifique into and with the said Territories, * * and to have, possess 
and enjoy any land * * in the places aforesaid, as they shall think fit, 
according to the laws * * to be made and established. And we do fur- 



ther grant unto our said dearest Brother that it shall and may be lawful to 
and for him or his Deputies * * at all and every time, * * out of 
our Realms or Dominions whatsoever to tstkeinto our said Territories, Islands, 
all such and so many of our loving subjects or any other strangers, bemg- not 
prohibited or under restraint, as shall willing-ly accompany them, tog^ether 
with all such cloathing * * and other things necessary for their use and 
defence, and managing and carrying- on the trade with the people there * 
* yielding and paying to us, our Heirs and Successors, the customs and du- 
ties' therefor * * it shall be lawful to resist by force of arms, as well by 
sea as by land, all such Person or Persons as without special license shall at- 
tempt to inhabit withm the precinct limits of our said Territories and Is- 
lands, and Lastly our will and Pleasure is, and we do hereby declare and grant 
that these our Letters Patents or the Enrollment thereof, shall be good and 
effectual in the law to all intents and purposes whatsoever, notwithstanding- 
the not reciting or mentioning- of the Premises or any part thereof, or the 
meets or Bourids thereof or of any former or other Letters, Patents or Grants, 
heretofore made or granted of the Premises or any Part thereof, by us or any 
of our Progenitors unto any other Person or Persons whatsoever, Bodies Poli- 
tic or corporate, or any act, law or other restraint, incertainty or imperfection 
whatsoever to the contrary in any wise notwithstanding. * * In witness 
whereof we have caused these our letters to be made Patent. Witness our- 
selves at Westminster, the twelfth day of March in the sixteenth year of our 
Reign."t By the King, HOWARD. 

Certified to by Robert Hunter. 

H. Wilei)iaii, Depty Secretary. 

The grant thus conferred on the Duke of York was in the extent of Ter- 
ritory conveyed equivalent to a good sized kingdom, and the powers granted 
were ample for its govern ment and development. The Duke of York, how- 
ever, did not long preserve his extensive domain intact. A little more than 
two months after he received the grant from the King he conveyed a portion 
constituting the present State of New Jersey to John Lord Berkley and Sir 
George Carteret. As this instrument gave the original bounds to the State, 
and which still continue as therein defined, it may be of interest to quote it in 
part : 

" This Indenture made the four and twentieth day of June in the sixteenth 
year of the Reign Of our Sovereign Lord Charles the Second, King, Defender 
of the Faith, etc. etc., A. D., 1664, Between his Royal Highness, James, the 
Duke of York and Albany, Earl of Ulster, Lord High Admiral of England 
and Ireland, Constable of Dover Castle, Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports 
and Governor of Portsmouth, of the one part : John Lord Berkeley, Baron of 
Stratton and one of His Majesty's most Honorable Privy Council, and Sir 
George Carteret of Saltrum, in the County of Devon, Knight, and one of his 
Majesty's most Honorable Privy Council, of the other Part ;" (recites the grant 
from Charles II. to the Duke of York, then continues.) " Now this Indenture 
witnesseth that his Royal Highness, James, Duke of York, for and in consid- 
eration of a competent sum of good and lawful money of England, * *' 
hath granted and sold to said John Lord Berkeley and Sir George Carteret, 
their Heirs and assigns forever. All that tract of land adjacent to New England 
and lying and being to the westward of Long Island and Manhitas Island, 
and bounded on the East part by the Main Sea and part by Hudson's River, 
and hath upon the West Delaware Bay or River, and extending Southward to 
the main ocean as far as Cape May at the mouth of Delaware Bay, and to the 
Northward as far as the Northermost branch of the said Bay or River Delaware, 

t The above may be found in full In Learning & Spicer, P. 3, also In Perth Amboy 
records. 



which is forty-one degrees and forty minutes of latitude, and crosses over 
thence in a strait line to Hudson's River in forty-one degrees of latitude, 
which said tract of land is hereafter to be called by the name or names of 
New Cesarea or New Jersey, and also all rivers, mines, etc,, (as in grant to 
Duke of York) in so full and ample manner as the same is granted to the 
Duke of York by the before recited Letters Patent. * * To have and to 
hold all and singular the said tract of land and premises * * yielding and 
rendering therefor unto the said James, Duke of York, his heirs and assigns, 
yearly and every year, the sum of twenty nobles of lawful money ot England, 
if the same shall be lawfully demanded at or in the Inner Temple Hall, Lon- 
don, at the F^east of St. Michael, the archangel, yearly. * * 

In witness whereof the parties aforesaid to these presents have inter- 
changeably set their hands and seals the day and year first above written.* 
Signed, sealed and delivered in the ) Tames 

presence of ( -^ ' 

Wm. Covenrye, 
Thomas Hayward. 

This grant from the Duke of York to Lord Berkeleyt and Sir George 
Carteret, not only conveyed to them the land as described, but also conferred 
on them the powers of Government, if not in express terms, yet impliedly. 
That they so considered it is manifest from their issuing within a year from 
the time when they received their title, " The concessions and agreements 
of the Lords Proprietors of New Jersey,"J which instrument provided a Gov- 
ernor and Council, and gave full directions for the government of the settlers, 
the laying out of the lands and how they were to be held, etc., and this in- 
strument may be fitly termed thejirsf cofistitution of New Jersey. 

From this point we may safely date New Jersey history. What events 
happened before within its bounds were for the most part unorganized and un- 
successful attempts at settlement by people antagonistic to and jealous of each 
other. But from this time the State or colony had an acknowledged head 
and government, and its settlement was conducted in accordance with certain 
defined rules and publicly proclaimed regulations. 

What the population of the colony was at this time we have no means of 
knowing. The Dutch settled at Bergen many years before (1618), but it was 
for many years a mere trading post. It elected a Sheriff in 1661, which 
would argue that it then had a considerable number of people. When Philip 
Carteret arrived in Elizabeth in August, 1665, he found four families there. 
He brought about thirty people with him. Newark was not settled till a year 
later. There was no settlement made in West Jersey under the Duke of 
York's grant until 1675, so the population on the Delaware must have been 
confined to what remained of the Swede's settlements and others who may 
have mingled with them. The whole population of the State at this time 
could not have exceeded a few hundred. 

But the Proprietors were not to enter upon the possession and manage- 

• The original lease and release are In the New Jersey Historical Society library. 
They are copied lu E. J. Records, at Perth Amhoy, and In Leamiuj & Splcer. 
t Wilson's Historical U. s. spells it " Berkeley," Whitehead. " Berkley." 
X The srant from Charles 11. to the Duke of York was dated i2th of March, 1664 ; from 
Duke of York to Berkley and Carteret 24th June, 1664. The grants and concessions were 
dated loth of Fobiuary, 1664. Whitehead, In his N. J., under the proprietors, P. 87. says : 
" The legal year commenced March 25th, and that consequently, February 1G64, was 
eleven months subsequent to the Duke's grant. According tn current dates the conces- 
sions were dated 10th February 1665. See Learning & Splcer, P. 74. 



ment of so extensive an estate without trouble. After the Duke of York had 
received his grant from Charles II, he appointed Col. Richard NicoUs as Gov- 
ernor over the territory so conveyed, who set out at once, and on his arrival 
in America took possession of the whole domain covered by the Duke's 
grant. Immediately after Nicolls' departure, the Duke conveyed New Jersey 
to Berkeley and Carteret. Of course Nicolls knew nothing of this convey- 
ance when he took possession of the whole country in the Duke's name and 
under a commission from him, and it was not until Nov. 28th, 1664, that any 
notice was sent him of the said conveyance, and owing to the length of time 
taken in crossing the Atlantic at that early day it must have been some 
months later when the information reached him.* 

Gov. Nicolls had, on his arrival, published liberal conditions to be grant- 
ed to settlers, and people from New England began to look toward the more 
fertile lands and milder climate of New Jersey, and on the 28th day of Oc- 
tober, A. D., 1664, John Bailey, Daniel Denton and Luke Watson, under 
permission of Governor Nicolls, obtained from the Indians a Deed, which 
was subsequently confirmed to them by Nicolls, " for all the lands bounded 
on the South by the river commonly called the Rariton River ; on the East by 
the river which parts Staten Island and the Main, and to run Northward up Af- 
ter-cull Bay till we come to the first river which setts Westward out of the 
Bay aforesaid, and to run Westward into the country twice the length it is 
broad from the North to the South of the aforesaid bounds."t The four fam- 
ilies found at Elizabethtown by Govenor Carteret, of whom mention has been 
made, were the pioneers of the settlers who took possession under this grant. 

On the 8th day of April, 1665, at about the time that Govenor Carteret 
sailed from England to take possession of New Jersey, Govenor Nicolls con- 
firmed another purchase of lands, lying at Sandy Hook, to William Goulding 
and others, said tract described as follows : " Beginning at a certain place 
commonly called or known by the name of Sandy Point and Running along 
the Bay West, North West till it comes to the mouth of the Rariton River, 
from thence going along the said River to the Westermost part of the cer- 
tain marsh land which divides the River into 2 parts, and from that part to 
run in a direct South West line into the woods twelve miles, and thence to 
run away South East and by South till it falls into the Main Ocean." On 
this grant were afterwards established the settlements of Middletown and 
Shrewsbury. Both this and the Elizabethtown grant were disallowed by the 
Duke of York, but the settlers contended that they had paid for their land, that 
they had acted in good faith in making the purchases, that Gov. Nicolls had 
confirmed their grants while he was as yet unacquainted with the fact that 
the country was no longer part of his Government, and they were not dis- 
posed to waive their rights in the matter. 

These grants led to litigation and serious disputes between the grantees 
and the parties holding under them, and the Proprietors, both as to the rights 
of soil and government, which are known as the Middletown and Elizabeth- 
town troubles. Terms of settlement were, however, agreed upon, but before 

♦ See Wliltebead's N. J. under tbe Prop. Note, P. 41. 
t Ibid— also E. Jersey records, Perth Amboy. 



8 

the time expired within which the arrangement was to be consummated, the 
Dutch were again in possession of the country. The matter was finally ta- 
ken into chancery and was still unsettled at the breaking out of the Revolu- 
tionary war, more than loo years after the Nicolls grant was given. After 
the war the suit was never revived.* 

We have already referred to the " Concessions and Agreements" of the 
Lords Proprietors. It is to be greatly regretted that in this charter to the 
people the Proprietors did not display the same wisdom in the laying out of 
their lands, that they exercised in granting equal rights and privileges to the 
settlers. The principle on which they acted seems to have been just and 
liberal, but the details and working of their plan miserably deficient. Had 
they taken a section of country before, or as soon as it became desired by 
settlers, and completely and accurately surveyed the whole of it, and divid- 
ed it into lots, and sold the lots in accordance with said survey, much loss and 
trouble to themselves might have been prevented, and long and tedious law- 
suits among the settlers, arising from the clashing of boundary lines, and 
the overlapping of one survey upon another might have been averted. The 
system (or total lack of system) which they inaugurated and which has al- 
ways been continued,! has made its baleful effects felt to the present day, and 
will continue to be a plague and fruithful source of litigation for futnre gener- 
ations. What that system was will appear as our work progresses. 

It was provided in the Grants and Concessions " that all lands be divid- 
ed by general lots, none to contain less than twenty-one hundred acres, 
none more than twenty-one thousand acres in each lot, excepting cities, and 
towns, &c. And that the same be divided into seven equal parts, one seventh 
part to go to the proprietors and the remainder to persons as they come to 
plant the same in such proportion as allowed.' 

It also was provided that the Governor, or his Deputy, should give a 
warrant to every person to whom land was due, directed to the Surveyor 
General, or his Deputy, commanding him to lay out, limit and bound such 
land according to said warrant. After the land was so surveyed, and certain 
forms complied with in regard to the entry and Registry of the same, the 
Governor and Council, or the majority of them, were to issue a grant or pat- 
ent therefor. Grants were to he given for roads, (in cities not exceeding loo 
feet wide), for churches, forts, &c., and for " Publick" Houses, and to each 
parish for the use of their ministers two hundred Acres " in such places as 
the General Assembly shall appoint." All such lands as last above mentioned 
were to be exempt from rents and taxes. 

The form of the Grant, or Patent, to be issued to the settlers was as fol- 
lows : 

* It enters not within our province to give a history of these troubles, and they are 
noticed here as being conspicuous Instances In which the titles of the Proprietors were dis- 
puted by the settlers. For a succinct account of them see" Will tehead, E. J. under the 
Proprietors," with copious references in the foot notes. 

t There were two exceptions to the plan above criticised, about a century later. In 
1768 the Board of Proprietors surveyed and laid out In Irregular lets about 40,ooi) acres, 
called the Hamapock tract, the lots varying In contents from fifty to five hundred acres. 
In 1774 tlu' Sussex Allotments were laid out, one thousand acres In a lot. It Is strange 
that at this time wnen the evils of the prevailing system must have been clearly seen, 
that the Board did not then survey and lay out In lots all their remaining lands. Even; 
tbe surveys of the lands so laid out were very inaccurate. 



" The Lords Proprietors of the Province of New Ceaserea, or New Jer- 
sey, do hereby grant unto A. B. * * a plantation containing * * acres 
English measure, Bounded * * to hold to him or her, his or her assigns 
forever, yielding and paying yearly to the said Lords Proprietors their Heirs 
or Assigns every fifth and twentieth day of March, according to English ac- 
count, one half penny of lawful money of England for every of the said acres, 
to be holden after the manner of East Greenwich in free and common soc- 
cage ; the first payment of which rent is to begin the twenty-fifth day of 
March, sixteen hundred and seventy. (One half part of the mines of gold 
and silver were to be excepted.)" 

It seems to be top much to expect that the Lords Proprietors could be 
so much in advance of the usage and sentiment of their day as to lay aside 
the idea of a great landed tenantry — an idea to which the English Proprie- 
tors have clung for two hundred years later to the present day, to the great 
curse of the mass of their people ; but had it been possible, and the Lords 
Proprietors had sold the lands to the settlers for their value and had given 
them titles in fee-isimple — no claims on them for quit-rents or anything but 
legal taxes — the Proprietors themselves would probably have been far richer 
in pocket and contentment of mind, and the settlers would have been far 
more reconciled to their Proprietorship. As it was, the settlers by the very 
exigencies of their situation, — some having already purchased, and holding 
their land by title in fee from the Indians, some, no doubt, prior to their set- 
tlement in New Jersey, having been owners in fee-simple of land in New 
England — had broken loose from the precedents and usages in vogue in the 
old country, and to pay rent for lands for which they had already paid, per- 
haps a goodly sum, or which had at least cost them days of weary toil to re- 
claim from the primeval forest, was extremely distasteful to them. So when 
the days for collecting the Rents arrived many of them remained unpaid, and 
this became a fruitful source of contention and complaint between the Lords 
Proprietors and the settlers.* 

In March, 1672, after New Jersey had been only eight years under the 
Lords Proprietors, war was declared by England and France against Hol- 
land. The States General sent five vessels against New York, which arrived 
in July, 1673, and on the 30th of the same month it capitulated to the Dutch, 
having hardly made a show of resistance.f 

This change of rulers did not affect the titles of the settlers to their land, 
however much it might have affected the Proprietors had this state of affairs 
remained permanent. The Dutch guaranteed to the residents of New York 
their rights and certain privileges, on condition of swearing allegiance to the 
States General ; and the same terms seem to have been granted to the citi- 
zens of New Jersey, for a majority of the magistrates and constables from the 
surrounding country — from East Jersey, and the settlements on the Dela- 
ware — took the oath. 

The inhabitants of Elizabethtown, Newark, Woodbridge and Piscataway 

• In 1695, the proposition was made by the Assembly to buy the quit-rents, as they 
were a general grievance, but though the Proprietors appointed Geo. Wellocks, In 1699, 
special agent to confer with the patentees In relation to It, nothing was ever accomplished. 
The collection of them seems to have at last fallen Into disuse, probably from inability to 
collect them. 

t Whitehead's N, J. imder the Prop., Note p. 73, says the fort fought 4 hours, till the 
ammunition was expended. 



surrendered their towns to the Supreme Military Tribunal at New Amster- 
dam, and the 1 8th of August was appointed for a conference, the towns of 
Bergen, Shrewsbury and Middletown being also invited to send representa- 
tives. On that day the inhabitants were confirmed in the possession of their 
lawfully acquired lands, and placed on an equality, as regarded privileges, 
with the Hollanders.* 

But this state of affairs did not long continue. On the 9th of February, 
1674, a treaty of peace with England was signed, and the possessions con- 
quered by the Dutch in this country, after being held by them a little over 
six months, were restored to England. 

Thus ended all claims and possessions of the Dutch on this continent, 
and England regained undisputed and undisturbed jurisdiction over all of 
her former possessions in the New World, and maintained the same until the 
War which secured the Independence of the Colonies tore them from her 
grasp forever. 

On the conclusion of peace doubts began to arise in some quarters as to 
the validity of the title of the Duke of York, and consequently of Lord Berk- 
ley's and Sir George Carteret's, to their respective domains, on account of the 
recapture of the country by the Dutch, and its subsequent relinquishment to 
the Crown. To remove all grounds for such objections, and to make their 
titles unquestionably as good as before, King Charles II granted to the Duke 
of York a new patent, dated 29th of June, 1674, containing the same bounds 
as to soil, and the same grants and privileges as to government, which were 
contained in the first patent.f 

Immediately after he received his renewed title the Duke of York execu- 
ted a grant (Dated 29th July, 1674,) to Sir George Carteret, individually, "of 
all that tract of land adjacent to New England, Westward of Long Island, 
and Manhitas Island, and bounded on the East part by the Main Sea and 
part of Hudson's River and extends Southward as farr as a certaine Creeke 
called Barnegat, being about the middle betweene Sandy point and Cape May, 
and bounded West in a strait line from the said Creeke called Barnegatt to 
a certaine creekej in Delaware River next and adjoining to and below a cer- 
tain creeke in Delaware river called Rankokus Kill, and from thence up the 
said Delaware, &c.," the remainder of the patent same as in the ist grant. 
This title was as full as to rights and privileges as the first title from the 
Duke. § 

It will be noticed that this last grant was given to Sir George Carteret 
individually. Berkley had, prior to this time, (March i8th, i673.)|| conveyed 
his right in the Province to John Fenwick in trust for Edward Byllinge, the 
conveyance being about four months prior to the Dutch conquest. Berkley's 

• Wbltchead's N. J. UQ ier Prop., p. 74. 

t Leamln',' & Splcer P. 41, E. .1. Records. 

Jn tlil3 !,'rant It Is particularly recited " tliat New York and New Jersey after the 1st 
grant tliereot by tue KluK, were coaquered by tlie ButcU, wiio afterward in pui-suance of 
a treaty of peace, restored the fame to his majesty, which occaslODed the new grant." 

t South of IJurllngton. 

{ The original Is In N. J. Hist Soc. Library. Copied la Leamlng & Splcer, P. 46. Re- 
corded Sec'y State's office, Trenton. Liber 3. page loi. 

II Recital In the Qulntlpartlte Deed gives the date, and says that Berkley conveyed 
to Fenwick the " moiety of oue-ha'f part of N. J." 



conveyance was no doubt designed to cover the Western division of the Prov- 
ince, but the above Deed from the Duke of York to Sir George Carteret gave 
the latter much more than one-half of the whole Territory. The inequality 
of the division probably proceeded from ignorance of the Geography of the 
Province. The language of the Deed itself, " Bounded on the IVesi by a 
strait line from Barnegat Creeke, to a Creeke on the Delaware," would seem 
to confirm this view, as it is only a few degrees North of a IVest course from 
Barnegat to the said creek, and the line would be more properly described as 
lying on the 5(9«M side of the land, than on the IVesL It was evidently 
supposed that from the said point at Barnegat, to the point on the Delaware, 
was more of a Northerly than of a Westerly course. 

In 1675 John Fenwick came over with a party to settle West Jersey, but 
a difficulty arising between him and Byllynge, no others followed .for two 
years. The difficulty was settled, subsequently, through the intervention of 
Wm. Penn. Byllynge's interest was transferred to Wm. Penn, Gawen 
Laurie and Nicholas Lucas, as Trustees for Byllynge's creditors, he being 
deeply involved in debt.* 

It is not the design of this work to enter mto the History of West Jer- 
sey, but the recital of the above facts in connection therewith is deemed nec- 
essary to show how Byllynge, Penn, Lawrie and Lucas became parties to the 
Quintipartite Deed, which was executed hereafter. 

Sir George relinquished to the Duke the last mentioned grant (of July 
29, 1 764) in order that the Province might be more equitably divided between 
him and the assigns of Lord Berkley. This would seem to show that the 
error contained in the bounds of the said charter, giving Sir George too large 
a proportion of the Province, had been discovered. 

On the First day of July, 1676, the Deed referred to " for a more equita- 
ble division" was executed. A synopsis of it may not prove uninteresting. 
It is as follows : *' This Indenture Quintipartite, Made i July, 1676, between 
Sir George Carteret of Saltrum, England, of the ist part, Wm. Penn, of 
Rickmansworth, County of Hertford, of the 2nd part, Gawen Lawry, of Lon- 
don, Merchant of the 3rd part, Nicholas Lucas of Hertford, Maltster, of the 
4th part, and Edward Billinge of Westminster of the 5th part ;" then recites 
the grants from Charles II, to the Duke of York, and from him to Berkley 
and Carteret, and continues : and " whereas in and by one certain Indenture 
&c., dated 18 March, 1673, made between said John Lord Berkeley of the 
1st part, and John Fenwick of the 2nd part, and duly enrolled in his Majes- 
ty's high Court of Chancery in England &c., &c, did sell and convey unto 
said John Fenwick all that the moiety of one-half part of him the said John 
Berkley of and in the said tract of land called New Jersey &c. * * And 
whereas in and by two other Indentures, the one being an Indenture of Bar- 
gain and Sale * * bearing date 9 February 1674 between the said John 
Fenwicke and Edward Billinge of one part, and the said William Penn, Ga- 
wen Lawry and Nicholas Lucus of the other part, and the other being an 
Indenture Tripartite of grant, release or confirmation, Dated 10 Feb'y, 1674, 
(between the same parties; * * for the said moiety or \ part of N. J. * 
* and do hold the same as tenants in common with the said Sir George 

• Whitehead's E. J. under Prop. P. 86. Barher & How's Hist, of N. J. says : 
♦' West Jersey was divided Into 100 equal parts, 10 to be Fenwlck's, 90 to be Byllynge's. 
Byllynge's part was Intrusted to Wm. Penn, Gawen Laurie and Nicholas Lucas for the 
benefit of his creditors. These Trustees sold undivided moieties, and the purchasers be- 
came Proprietors with them ami formed a government. See W. J. Records. 



Carteret, who is now actually seized of the other undivided moiety or half 
part of said premises * * have agreed to make partition between them 
of the said tract * * it is agreed that the said Sir George Carteret shall 
have for his share or part to be henceforth called East New Jersey, all &c., 
lying on the East side and Eastward of a strait and direct line drawn through 
the said premises from North to South from the dividing and making a par- 
tition or separation of the said Eastern part * * from the Westerly part 

* * (the other parties to have the Westerly side of said line to be called 
West New Jersey) * * do release unto said Sir George Carteret his heirs 
and assigns forever * * all that Easterly part of said tract * * ex- 
tending Eastward and Northward along the sea coast and the said River 
called Hudsons from the East side of a certain place or Harbour lying on 
the Southern part of the same tract of land and commonly called by the 
name of Little Egg Harbour to that part of the said river called Hudsons, 
which is in forty-one degrees latitude, being the furthermost part of the said 
tract of land which is bounded by the said river, and crossing over from 
thence in a strait line, extending from that point of Hudson's river aforesaid 
to the Northermost branch or part of the before mentioned Delaware River 

* * the most northerly part of said tract * * now agreed to be called 
the North partition point * * from the said North partition point by a 
strait and direct line drawn Southward through the said tract of land unto 
the most Southwardly part of the East side of Little Egg Harbour aforesaid 

* * agreed to be called the South partition point * * the above to be 
called the line of partition between East and West Jersey." The balance 
of the Deed releases by Sir Geo. Carteret the Western division to the said 
parties.* 

In presence of Henry West, Signed GEORGE CARTERET, 

James Bowers, Wm. PENN, 

Thomas Langborn, GAWEN LAWRY, 

Richard Langborn, NICHOLAS LUCAS, 

John Richardson. EDWARD BILLINGE. 

It might naturally be supposed that with a line of division so distinctly 
given, the Northern and Southern division points so clearly defined, that 
there need have been no difficulty in ascertaining the exact line on the 
ground and permanently locating and marking it. 

But here we see again the slip-shod and careless manner of the early 
Proprietors in regard to their lands and lines. It may have been that land 
being plenty and of little valuet they may have thought it unnecessary and a 
needless expense to survey and establish the line at once ; but this only 
shows their squeamishness, or short-sightedness, or both. By their failing 
to do so, it became a subject of disputes between the Proprietors of the two 
divisions, their Deputy Surveyors, and the settlers, much to the inconven- 
ience and often expense of all parties, besides the engendering of much bad 
feeling, and ill will.:f 

• The original Is In the Library of N. .T. Hist Society. 

t By reference to a patent given in 17li for 2800 acres, extending from Passaic 
Falls to Peckham liver, lying on the south sWe of the Passaic, as also by reference to 
other patents In North-eastern New Jersey, we And the prtce of land at this uate about 
lour shillings per acre. 

t To show the Ignorance of the geography of the State at that day, and the wlldness 
of conjecture as to where the line would run. In 1710 lands were sold by the W. J. propri- 
etors as far east as the Peqiumack river, (now the boundary Une between Morris and Pas- 
saic Counties,) and about nfteen miles east of the line afterwards run by Lawrence (En 
1748), while the East Jersey Proprietors surveyed and returned land on the west side o 
the said Une. 



13 

Whitehead in his " East Jersey under the Proprietors" to which we have 
so often referred, says : 

" It was evidently the intention of the contracting parties to divide the 
Province equally, and in furtherance of that intention a line was run by 
George Keith in 1687 from Egg Harbor Northwardly as far as the South 
Branch of the Rariton. Had it been extended to the Delaware, West Jersey 
would have contained 53,890 acres less than East Jersey, or 26,945 acres less 
than half the Province, and in 1688 an agreement was entered into having in 
view the correction of any inequality. But as inasmuch as the East Jersey 
proprietors claimed from the Duke of York to the latitude of 40° 40' on the 
Delaware, they, acting consistently, recognized that as the ' north partition 
point, agreed upon in the Quintipartite Deed, and in 17 19 a joint com- 
mission established that as the point whence the line was to run to Egg Har- 
bor, but not until September and October, 1743, was it actually run by John 
Lawrence. The East Jersey Proprietors have continued to regard this line 
as binding, although it gave to West Jersey an excess of over 1,000.000 
acres; but the settlement of the Northern boundary in 1769 having placed 
the Northern point on the Delaware more to the Eastward, the West Jersey 
Proprietors in 1775 took some steps towards asserting their right to a further 
portion, which would have given them more than 1,850,000 acres, and again 
after the Revolution, in 1782, the attempt was renewed, but without suc- 
cess."* 

An act was passed by the Legislature March 27, 1719, to run and estab- 
lish the line, in which, it was provided that if the E. J. Proprietors had too 
much land they were to give the W. J. Proprietors an equivalent, and vice 
versa ; and in which was also a provision to confirm to the settlers the lands 
taken up on either side of the line under grants from either of the Proprie- 
tors. It was in accordance with this act the Lawrence hne was run in 1743. 
The East Jersey Proprietors under certain circumstances might locate lands 
in the Western Division, and the West Jersey in the Eastern Division. But 
as we have before said, there was a long delay before the line was run, the 
provisions of the act were but loosely complied with, and the matter, at least 
as far as the W^est Jersey Proprietors were concerned, was never considered 
definitely settled. 

To return, we find on the ist day of July, 1676, one hundred years be- 
fore the Declaration of Independance, Sir George Carteret, sole owner, in fee 
simple, of the Eastern Divison of New Jersey. 

What the extent of his rights and powers in the Province at this time 
were considered to be by the King, is shown by the following letter Dated 
13 June, 1674, 16 days prior to the time the Duke of York received his re- 
newed title after the Dutch conquest. 

CHARLES R. 
Trusty and well beloved, we greet you well. Whereas our trusty and 
well beloved Councellor, Sir George Carteret, &c., by grant derived under us 
is seized of the Province of Nova Cesarea, or New Jersey in America, and of 
the jurisdiction thereof as the Proprietor of the same, in the plantation of 
which said Province the said Sir George Carteret hath been of great charge 
and expense ; and whereas of late great troubles and disorders have hap- 
pened there by some ill affected persons. We, being willing and desirous 
to encourage the inhabbiting and planting of the said Province, and to pre- 

* There Is much concerning this controversy In the E. & W. J. Records. For a par- 
ticular statement see Gordon's N. J., also Smith's New Jersey. 



serve the peace * * charge and command all persons whatsoever inhab- 
iting within the said Province, forthwith to yield obedience to the laws and 
government, which are or shall be there established by the said Sir George 
Carteret, who hath the sole power under us to settle and dispose of the said 
Country, upon such terms and conditions as he shall see fit, and we shall ex- 
pect a ready compliance with this our will * * under pain of our high 
displeasure. * * And so we bid you farewell. Given &c. By his Ma- 
jesty's command.* 

Arlington. 

(Another letter, also from his Majesty to the settlers, dated 23rd Novem- 
ber, 1683, commands them to respect Sir George's title.f) 

Sir George Carteret died January 13, 1680, in his 80th year, without ever 
having seen the land with which his name will be for all time associated. 
By his will, dated December 5th, 1678, he left his widow. Lady Elizabeth, 
executrix of his estate, and also appointed her the guardian of his grandsonj 
(a child of his deceased son Philip) who became his heir, if there were any 
remainder after his debts were paid ; for it seems that Sir George possessed, 
in common with so many of the English nobility of that day the aristocratic 
habit of running in debt. He also devised to Edward, Earl of Sandwich ; 
John, Earl of Bath ; Hon. Bernard Grenville, brother to the Earl of Bath ; 
Sir Thomas Crewe, Kn't ; Sir Robert Atkyns, Knight of the Bath ; and Ed- 
ward Atkyns, Esq., one of the Barons of the Exchequer ; and their heirs, 
among other lands, all of his property in East Jersey, in trust for the ben- 
efit of his creditors.§ 

On the 1st and 2nd of February, 1681-2 Deeds for the sale of East New 
Jersey were executed. The Trustees having been unable to dispose of it at 
private sale, it was finally put up at public auction and sold to the highest 
bidder for ;^3,400, or less than $17,000. The contracting parties in the sale 
and purchase were, Elizabeth Carteret, widdo ; John, Earl of Bath ; Thomas 
Lord Crewe, Hon. Bernard Grenville, Sir Robert Atkyns, Sir Edward Atkyns, 
Thomas Pocock and Thomas Cramer of the First part, to Willian Penn, 
Robert West, Thomas Rudyard, Samuel Groome, Thomas Hart, Richard 
Mew, Thomas Wilcox, Ambrose Riggs, John Heywood, Hugh Hartshorne, 
Clement Plumstead, and Thomas Cooper of the 2nd part,|| The bounds in 
the conveyance were according to the Quintipartite Deed. The purchasers 
became known as " The twelve Proprietors of the Eastern Division of New 
Jersey." 

• Learning & Splcer, P. 49. 

t Sec'y States office, Trenton, Folio A., page 1, 

t Also called George. 

§ Whitehead's B. J., p. 102, Learning & Splcer, p. 73. 

II The original document Is In the Library of the N. J. Hist. Soc. Recorded In Sec. 
State's office, Trenton, Liber A , p. 4 ; also Liber No. 4. p. 24, and Learning & Splcer, page 
73. In the recital In the Release It appears that the grantors had previously conveyed 
the premises, amouj? other things, to said Cramer and Pocock. which Is the reason of 
their Joining In the sale. There has been no other document discovered showing this 
transfer. It also recites that Edward, Earl of Sandwich, released all his Interest In the 
premises to the other Trustees before they conveyed to the 12 Proprietors. Whitehead 
says, " The Trustees with the exception of the Earl of Sandwich, on the 5th and 6th 
March, 1679-80, conveyed to Thos. Cramer and Thos Pococke, and on the 20th Peb'y, 
1680-81, the Earl of Sandwich released his Interest In the trust. E. J. under Prop. p. 102. 



15 

On the 1st day of June, 1682, the twelve entered into a deed of sur- 
vivorship,* which recites : 

" That the monies paid for said tract of land were paid by each of the 
said parties in equal proportions, and that the said purchase was intended 
for their equal benefit * * and therefore it is agreed between them that 
there shall not be any benefit of survivorship between said parties * * by 
reason of the death of any one or more of them ; but that the Heirs and As- 
signs of all and every the said party so dying shall enjoy the portion thereof 
which the said several parties have therein."! 

But where there were so many interests it is not to be supposed that the 
situation would remain long unchanged. In fact Thos Wilcox sold his en- 
tire interest on Feb'y 27th, 18824 to David Barclay, " and at sundry times 
during the year 1682 the Twelve Proprietors conveyed to Twelve others, 
viz : to Robert Barclay, Edward Billinge, Robert Turner, James Brain, Arent 
Soumans, William Gibson, Gawen Lawrie, David Barclay, Thomas Barker, 
Thomas Warne, ' James, Earl of Perth, Robert Gordon and John Drum- 
mond. These are placed in the order in which the conveyances were from 
the first twelve to the other twelve. That is, each of the first twelve con- 
veyed separate to each of the last twelve one half of his share. "§ 

We have, to avoid a break in our narrative and chain of title, passed by 
without mentioning another deed or confirmation of title from the Duke of 
York. The occasion of its being given was as follows : The Governors of 
New York, acting under commissions from the Duke, who, strangely, in- 
cluded New Jersey in his commissions to the N^w York Governors notwith- 
standing his repeated grants of it to others, consequent upon such clause in 
their commissions, disputed the jurisdiction of the Governors of New Jersey 
and tried to extend their authority over New Jersey soil, Of course this was 
resisted, and the dispute had continued, sometimes with great violence and 
animosity, up to the time of Sir George Carteret's death. But the matter 
having come to a judicial decison about that time in which it was affirmed 
that there was " not any reservation of any profit or jurisdiction" to the Duke 
of York in the grants to Berkley and Carteret, he relinquished his preten- 
sions (at least for the time being) to East Jersey in favor of Sir George Car- 
teret, grandson and heir of the first Sir George. This document is dated 
loth Sept., 1680, and was executed Oct. 16, 1680, The original is in the Libra- 
ry of the N. J. Hist. Soc. Why it was given to the younger Carteret, in the 
then state of the Carteret title it would be hard to tell. 

To make their title doubly sure, the twenty-four proprietors acquired 
from the Duke of York a new grant as confirmation of their title. 

It is dated the 14th March, 1682-3, and is given to James, Earl of Perth, 
John Drummond, Robert Barclay, David Barclay, Robert Gordon, Arent 
Soumans, Wm. Penn, Robert West, Thomas Rudyard, Samuel Groom, 
Thomas Hart, Richard Mew, Ambrose Rigg, John Heywood, Hugh Harts- 

♦ Sec'y States office, Book A. page 16. 

t Thos. Wilcox signed said deed, though it Is said he conveyed his interest to David 
Barclay, Feb'y 27, 1682. 

t Whitehead's E. j. &c., p. II8, E. J. Records. 

§ The above is from Learning & Splcer, page 73. Thirteen names are mentioned. 
The error Is, David Barclay having bought out Thomas Wilcox's interest, stood lathe 
place of one of the original twelve, and should not have been mentioned here. 



i6 

home, Clement Plumsted, Thomas Cooper, Gawen Lawrie, Edward Billynge, 
James Brain, William Gibson, Thomas Barker, Robert Turner and Thomas 
Warne.* 

" The greater number of the proprietaries being- in England and Scotland, 
all orders and instructions, however minute, emanated at first from their 
councils there ; but emigration, and a transfer of proprietary rights, soon 
brought to the province such numbers of those directly mterested in the soil, 
that on the ist August, 1684, a board of commissioners was established, 
comprising all the proprietaries that might be from time to time in the prov- 
ince, to act with the Deputy-Governor in the temporary approval of laws 
passed by the Assemby, the settlement of all disputes with the planters, the 
purchase and laying out of lands, &c. This soon after became known as the 
• Board of Proprietors,' and continued to have the chief management, within 
the province, of those concerns which were connected with the proprietary 
titles to the government and soil.'t 

" At the time of the transfer of East Jersey to the twenty-four, the pop- 
ulation of the different towns is estimated to have been 3,500, and the fami- 
ilies scattered on plantations throughout the province half as many more, 
making the entire population over 5,000 souls."§ The prmcipal towns were 
Bergen, Newark, Elizabethtown, Woodbridge, Piscataway, Middletown and 
Shrewsbury. And this was the nucleus, 200 years ago, of the now tens of 
thousands in population, and hundreds of thriving cities, towns and villages 
throughout the State. 

As soon as the Proprietaries were confirmsd in their title by the Duke 
of York, they at once, by advertising the great advantages and desirableness 
of the land, sought to induce emigration so as to have the country settled. 
All that was wanted, according to the language of one of the quaint wrfters 
of the day, " being people to make it a very goodly place indeed." They 
met with a moderate success and settlers came in from time to time in con- 
siderable numbers, but owing to the unsettled state of affairs which will be 
referred to hereafter, the growth of "the province was not as rapid as it would 
have been under other circumstances. 

In 1685, the Governor of New York, still in spite of the decision against 
the Duke, that he had reserved no jurisdiction in New Jersey, claimed the 
right to collect customs at the New Jersey ports. The Duke in utter disre- 
gard of the said decision, and of his frequent grants and confirmations of the 
territory to others, connived at the claims of his subordinate, if indeed he was 
not at the bottom, and chief instigator of the whole business. These claims 
were of long standing, and now by the death of Charles II, the Duke having 
ascended the throne, as if royalty released him from the obligations of solemn 
engagements, and even the appearance of common decency, he soon showed 
that he was disposed to go even a step beyond his pliable agent, and to com- 
pletely annex the province to New York. These pretensions soon brought 
the proprietaries not only in conflict with the Governor of New York, but 

• Recorded In Sec'y State's Office, A— 53. 
t Whitehead's E. J. &c., p. 141. 
t Ibid, p. 121. 



17 

even with the Crown itself. In the meantime the settlers on the Middletown 
and Elizabethtown grants continued their strife with the Proprietaries, the 
laws were not properly enforced, and great confusion prevailed throughout 
the province. From the time the twenty-four assumed the title and juris- 
diction of East Jersey they found but one incessant round of trouble. 

The King had in 1686 sent Edward Andros over again, and now, as 
Governor of all New England. On certain pretexts he dissolved the Gov- 
ernments of Rhode Island and Connecticut, and the King being now de- 
termined to extend his (Andros) authority over East Jersey, the Proprietors 
finding themselves powerless to stay, or counteract his intentions, and hop- 
ing to obtain his guarantee to their right to the soil, they agreed to SiO^xx- 
Aonxill their claiin and rights as to government. Accordingly they made 
a formal surrender of their patent in April, 1688, on this condition.* James, 
however, never issued to them the grant as agreed on.t The West Jersey 
Proprietors also entered into the arrangement, and Andros was, by a new 
commission, made Governor over East and West Jersey, together with New 
York and New England. However, probably from motives of policy, he 
retained in oflfice the Deputy Governor of East Jersey, and all of his subordin- 
ates. 

The Revolution in England in favor of William and Mary having taken 
place, Andros was seized by the people of New England in April, 1689, and 
his government overthrown. Consequently, his authority in the several 
provinces over which he had been placed, vanished. This threw the gov- 
ernment of East Jersey again into the hands of the Proprietaries. Andrew 
Hamilton, the Deputy Governor, in doubt as to the course to pursue, went 
to England to advise with the proprietors, and for three years the province 
was without a government, and only under the control of town officers, and 
local magistrates. 

In 1692 the government was re-established by the appointment of An- 
drew Hamilton as Governor, but from this time forth the history of the prov- 
ince is one of contentions and strife. Deputy Governor succeeded Deputy 
Governor, but none seemed competent or willing to allay the contentious 
spirit of the people. The Proprietors, scattered in England, Scotland and in 
the province, and often at variance among themselves as to the best course 
to pursue, had no uniform line of action ; and while some were disposed to 
commend, it often happened that others were disposed to censure the acts of 
their deputies, who, in some instances, taking advantage of the unsettled 
state of affairs seemed more desirous of serving their own interests than those 
of their employers. The settlers being inimical to the rights of the proprie- 
taries, riots and violence were prevalent, and, as if to add to the complica- 
tions, the home government were proposing to test the rights of the proprie- 
taries to govern at all. This state of affairs militated very much against the 
growth and well being of the province. | 

* Smith's New Jersey, 
t Whitehead's E. J. &c., p. 161. 

X For an account of the province at this time, see WBltehead's E. J. under the Pr<^. 
from which much of the above Is taken. 



i8 

In this condition of things, the Proprietors, fearful of losing even their 
right to the soil, which many of the settlers denied, concluded to surrender 
the right of government to the Crown, and on the 17th of April, 1702, the 
matter having been in negotiation for nearly three years, the arrangement 
was perfected, and the surrender accepted by Queen Ann who had succeed- 
ed William to the throne. The surrender was made without any other con- 
ditions than that the proprietaries' legal rights as owners of the lands and 
quit-rents, should be respected and the title to their land confirmed. The 
Proprietors of West Jersey were also parties to the surrender. Thus, after a 
troublous experience of about thirty-eight years, came to an end the govern- 
ment by the Proprietors.* It is estimated that the population at this time 
exceeded ten thousand persons. 

The surrender was dated 15 April, 1702, and signed for the Eastejn di- 
vison by I, L. Morris in behalf of Rob't, Burnet ; 2, Miles Foster; 3, John 
Johnstone ; 4, Michael Hawden ; 5, John Barclay ; 6, David Lyell ; 7, Thom- 
as Warne ; 8, Thomas Gordon ; 9, Thomas Barker ; 10, Thomas Cooper ; 
II, Gilbert MoUison ; 12, Henry Adderly for Richard Hassel of Barbadoes ; 
13, William Dockura ; 14, Peter Soumans ; 15, Joseph Ormston for myself 
and for 16, Charles Ormston ; and 17, Edward Anthice ; and 18, Geo. Wil- 
locks ; and 19, Francis Handcock ; 20, Thos. Lane; 21, Paul Dominique; 
22, Rob't Mitchell ; 23, Jos. Brooksbank ; 24, E. Richer ; 25, Michael Watts ; 
26, Clement Plumstead. Only 3, Clement Plumstead, Thomas Barker and 
Thomas Cooper, were of the original 24 who purchased 20 years previously. 
The acceptance was signed by the Queen 17th April, 1702. 

Recapitulation of the different instruments, grants and patents affecting 
the title to New Jersey : 

ist Grant of Charles II to Duke of York. 12 March, 1664. 

1st Grant of Duke of York to Berkley & Carteret, 24 June, 1664. 

Berkley to Fenwicke & Billinge, (i of N. J.), 18 March, I673. 

Conquered by the Dutch, 30 July, 1673. 

Reconveyed to England, 9 Feb'y, 1674. 

2nd Grant of Charles II to Duke of York, 29 June, 1674. 

Duke of York to Sir George Carteret, (supposed |of N. J.) 29 July, 1674. 

Sir George Carteret to Duke of York, relinquishing the last above. 

Sir George Carteret, Wm. Penn, G. Lawrie, Nich's Lucas and Edward 
Billing. Deed Quintipartite. i July, 1676, E. J. to Sir George Carteret. 

Sir George Carteret to Elizabeth Carteret and six Trustees, conveys East 
Jersey. Will, Dated Dec. 5, 1678. 

Trustees to Thos. Cramer & Thos. Pocoke, 6 March, 1679-80. 

Earl of Sandwich to the other Trustees, Feb'y, 1680-81. 

Duke of York to Sir Geo. Carteret, heir of ist Sir George, 16 October, 
1680. 

Elizabeth Carteret, Trustees, and Pocoke and Cramer to the I2 Pro- 
prietors, 2nd Feb'y, 1681-82. 

The 12 Proprietors' Deed of Survivorship, 1st June, 1682. 

The 12 Proprietors to other 12 in the year, 1682. 

Duke of York to the 24 Proprietors, 14 March, 1682-3. 

The 24 surrender their patent to James II, April, 1688. 

The 24 surrender their patent to Queen Ann. 15 April, 1702. 

Surrender accepted, and the right to their land affirmed to the 24 Pro- 
prietors, 17 April, 1702. 

• The surrender and acceptance may be found la Learning & Splcer. 



CHAPTER II. 
Indian Titles. 



Whatever may have been the faults or the shortcomings of the early 
proprietors, posterity will never have to record of them that they v^^ere cruel 
or unjust to the aborigines of the country. They always acknowledged and 
respected the Indian's inherent right to the soil, and there is no record that 
any of the land of New Jersey was taken from them except by purchase. 

At the very outset this principle was recognized, and a provision was 
embodied in the Grants and Concessions " that land was to be purchased 
from time to time, as there shall be occasion, by the Governor and Council, 
from the Indians in the name of the Lords Proprietors, and then every indi- 
vidual person is to reimburse the Lords Proprietors at the same rate as it 
was purchased, together with the charges." All individual purchases, for 
their own use, were to be null and void, and their Indian titles would not be 
recognized by the Lords Proprietors. Licenses were granted by the Proprie- 
tors to individuals to purchase, but it must be in their name, and for them, 
and then they gave title to the individual. 

To this regulation of the Proprietors the settlers often demurred, and 
land was often purchased by them of the Indians without any license and 
many of them were disposed to claim that the Indian title was all sufficient, 
and superceded the title of the Proprietors altogether.* 

These disputes as to title were the source of a great deal of trouble be- 
tween the proprietors and the settlers, as also between the settlers them- 
selves. 

As early as 1695 a judicial decision was obtamed regarding the matter, 
the court deciding in favor of the party claiming under the proprietory grants. 
The decision, however, through a technical informality in the proceedings, 
was afterward reversed, and the dispute remained unended, and as late as 
1742 at a meeting of council held on the 30th of March of that year,t " Mr. 
Ashfield and Mr. Alexander made report to the Board that during last ses- 
sion of Assembly at Amboy * * sundry of the members of the Assembly 
in private conversation on the titles of land in this province did express their 
sentiments that the Indian titles were the best, which opinion if propagated 
might tend to the ruin of the Proprietors' titles of this province, and might 
possibly induce a repeal of the act concerning Indian purchases if it was not 

* Andrew Bowne, a m«ffiderQ/"<Ae coM«ci; In 1710, was an advocate of the claims 
founded on Indian titles. 

t Minutes of Council, Book A, page 127. 



confirmed by the King, whereupon the said James Alexander perused the 
minutes of council to see if that act had received the royal assent * * and 
could not find any minute of such royal assent * * and it was agreed 
that no time was to be lost in procuring it ;" and on the 14th of October of 
the same year a Memorial was sent from the council of the Proprietors to 
his Excellency Lewis Morris in regard to the Royal assent to said act. 

So it seems that as late as three-quarters of a century after the first 
grant from the Duke of York there was a sujfficiently large sentiment 
throughout the country in favor of the Indian titles to give the Board of 
Proprietors at least a genuine scare. The record does not show if the 
Crown ever gave its assent to the law or not, but it still stands unrepealed.* 

One would suppose that the act quoted in the foregoing note, would 
have been sufficiently explicit in terms, and high in authority, to silence all 
opposition. But the early settlers, as was afterward so fully demonstrated 
in the war of the Revolution, had a large supply of pertinacity in the pursuance 
of an idea, especially if in accordance with their self interest, and they were 
sometimes very much inclined to the exercise of their own wills, the law to 
the contrary notwithstanding ; so in the face of the said enactment, they con- 
tinued to purchase land of the Indians, in their own names, for some years 
afterwards. When the practice finally ceased the record says not, but their 
titles having no recognition in the courts their worthlessness must have final- 
ly been acknowledged, until at last only those emanating from the Proprietors 
were the ones under which the settlers claimed. 

There are still scattered among the descendants of the early settlers in 
the Northern part of the State quite a number of these old original deeds 
from the Indians, and which are now held and prized as curious mementoes 
of the past. The writer recently had one in his possession, a copy of which, 
on account of its quaint style, we give. It is for eight hundred acres of land 
lying at Wanaque, now in Passaic County. It is neither acknowledged or 
recorded, and given to Abraham Line, Koenrad Line and Antony Beam, 
and dated 8 September, 1729 ; its preamble is as follows : — 

" Whereas Quackpacktequa, Namerisko and Mataros are the natural 
proprietors of a certain tract of land, &c.. Beginning * * and so running 
North Easterly along the foot or rising of the hill as the hill runs, along by 
the line of marked trees neer about one and a half miles, from thence North- 
westerly about one mile till ii meet with a river called Patkeck by the Eng- 
lish and by the Indians Wanochke Brook, crossing said brook about five 
chains to a great rock, thence down the stream till u meet with a small brook 
including all the low land of the West side of the creek, thence down the 
stream of said brook till ti come to Patkeck, along said Patkeck Easterly 
down the stream till u come to where the Kreek turns away to the South 
from the corner of that Kreek Easterly till you come to a Black oak tree 
marked, and so along by the line of Carboret to where it first began * * 
to have from generation to generation * * now be it known to all people 

• Act or Dec 13, nii3. statutes of N. J., page 669. Provides that no person Is to 
purchase lands ot the Indians tout those who iiave right of propriety and obtain a license, 
and that any person so purchasing (without license) shall forielt forty shlUlngs per acre 
and be disabled to sue for the land ; that any perecn who has so purchased, or leased, or 
taken mortgage, and has not derived title from the Crown ot England, said title shall be 
void unless said person obtain a grant from the proprietors within six months from the 
date of this act, &c. 



and nations * * that we (Indians as above) by and with the consent of 
our friends and relations as our manner is, have granted, &c., &c." 

Signed, sck Johan King ben ge leaugh. 

Van X dese Merk, 
Merkvan, Metard m. 

and several others. 
The grantees held their land under the above title until 1740, when they 
took a patent from the Proprietors. 

The Proprietors did " from time to time as they had occasion" grant li- 
censes to individuals who made purchases. Such were the Haqueyquin- 
inke (Aquackanock) grant, Sanford's grant of salt meadows between the 
Passaic and Hackensack rivers, and many others. 

Some of the considerations in these Deeds from the Indians are curious 
as showing what the natives prized as luxuries or necessities, and instruc- 
tive as showing the value in which the lands were then held by both parties. 
The following is the consideration in a Deed given by the Indians to Jaques 
Cordeleon, Capt. Elbertson and others, 9th April, 1679* : — " 200 fathoms of 
white wampum, 1 1 guns, 50 lbs. powder, 6 blankets, 3 cloth coats, 6 fathoms 
red broadcloth, 12 fathoms duffield, 7 small kettles, i great gun, 10 hatchets, 
10 Hoes, I paire mens shoes, 10 paires stockings, i anker of rum, 20 knives, 
I augur, I draw knife." The lands conveyed were called Aquegnonke and 
were bounded " by the creek that divides it from Capt. John Berry's by 
Pasawack (Passaic) river, and by a creek called Patackpaen," is part of the 
salt meadows, and to show the inexcusable carelessness even at that early 
day in defining the bounds of their lands, Captain Berry entered a caveat 
against the above purchase " as extending part of this land to be in his pat- 
ent." 

Matters were in this condition between the Indians, the Proprietors and 
the settlers, until the year 1758, when the Indian title to all the lands in the 
Northern part of the State, and in part of now New York, was entirely ex- 
tinguished. It seems by the reference in the final Deed as below, that their 
title to the Southern part of the State had been conveyed a short time pre- 
viously. 

The Deed is dated 23 Oct., 1758, at Easton, Pennsylvania, and is be- 
tween Egohohoun, Chief of the Minsies, Lapink Nepcas, Mackakamee, 
Cockalalaman, Lawykaman and others, and his Excellency Capt. Bernard, 
Esq. Captain General and Commander-m-Chief of New Jersey, Hon. An- 
drew Johnson and others, Commissioners, &c., and is as follows : — 

" Whereas the Proprietors of Division of the Province of N. J., 

and the purchasers under them have heretofore bought divers large tracts of 
land from the Minisink or Minsi Indians, and the Oping or Pompton Indians, 
and other native and original possessors of the North part of this Province, 
but as the bounds of said tracts have not been sufficiently ascertained and 
divers disputes between the native Indians and the English inhabitants * * 
have arisen, to put an end to which the Mingoes and United nations have 
permitted their nephews, the Minisink or Munsies, and Oping or Pompton 
Indians to settle on their lands on the branches of the Susquehannah and 
elsewhere to which they have for their better convenience removed * * 

* Sec. State's office, Trenton, Book A— 129. 



22 

now all Indians having claims release to said Commissioners, &c., * * Be- 
ginning at the station point between the province of New Jersey and New 
York at the most Northerly end of an Indian settlement on the Delaware 
known by the name of Casheitong being about 32 miles m a strait line from 
the mouth of Machhackomack creek, near Cold's Fort, thence on a line 
nearly South East * * thro Pinpack to the drouned lands * * then 
crossing the North East end of Mount Eve to the mouth of Tappan Creek 
where the same enters the North or Hudson's River, thence down said river 
through the narrows to Sandy Hook, from thence to the mouth of the river 
Rariton, thence up the same to the forks thereof, thence up the North branch 
to the falls of Alamatunk, thence on a strait line to the Pasqualin Mountain 
where it joins on the Delaware, thence up said river to Casheitong where it 
began ; which said lines from Sandy Hook to Pasqualin mountain aforesaid 
are the North Eastern boundaries of the land lately granted and released by 
the Delaware Indians to the said Governor and Commissioners the 12th of 
September last and by the first above mentioned Indians is hereby ratified 
and confirmed." 

Signed by 

GEORGE CROGHAN, Depuiy Agent, 
HENRY MONTOUR. King's interpreter, 
CONRAD WEISER, Provzncial interpreter. 
And 18 Indians. 

And thus ends the last act in this Indian drama. Pushed back by de- 
grees farther and farther into the wilderness, in less than a century after the 
Lords Proprietors first take possession of the province, he formally conveys 
away the last of the land which he has before virtually had to abandon, and 
sounds the final knell of Indian possession in New Jersey soil. 



CHAPTER III. 
Early Explorations — Reading s Jour^ial, &^c. 



It is interesting to learn how early the Northern and mountainous por- 
tion of the province was explored, and what were the direct motives of the 
pioneers in such explorations, and in searching for the facts we are astonished 
to find how soon after the settlements along the bays and coasts such explor- 
ations were made, and how thorough the work was done. 

The finding of gold and silver seems to have been the first object to- 
ward which the pioneer explorers devoted their attention, and which induced 
them to penetrate the pathless wilderness inhabited only by the wily savage, 
and beast of prey. Many of the old deeds make reservation of the gold and 
silver which may be discovered on the lands therein conveyed. When it 
came to be pretty fully demonstrated that the land did not abound in the 
more precious metals, then iron ore became the exciting cause of search. 
The finding of abundance of that mineral, made water-powers sought after 
as valuable to drive drive forges, the forges using charcoal for fuel gave val- 
ue to the immense forests of timber, which enterprising men were not slow 
in securing large tracts of, and lastly, following in the wake of the others, 
came the agriculturist with axe and plow, to secure the good arable land to 
grow food for himself and his fellows. 

After it became known that iron existed in abundance in the hills and 
valleys, it is wonderful how soon this part of the province was explored. 
Even before the Revolutionary war the work had been very thoroughly done, 
and but few veins remained to be discovered after that period, for though 
the State has in the last twenty years expended many thousands of dollars 
in geological surveys, it is safe to affirm that the discoveries made by them 
in this direction have been of very indifferent importance, and that e^vtry prin- 
cipal vein which is now known was known prior to the time of the Revolution, 
and that the new openings and workings are mostly on, or contiguous to old 
veins, or on offshoots from them. Many of the best paying mines now 
worked were worked by the early pioneers of the country when New Jersey 
belonged to the English Crown, and, abandoned during the Revolution, have 
since found new owners, and are again yielding forth their inexhaustible 



24 

riches. There are some curious stories told of the rediscovery of old mines, 
or diggings, of a century or more ago. One which is entirely authentic we 
will relate. A few years since a shaft was sunk (at Ringwood, Passaic 
County), at a place which showed a heavy* magnetic attraction. Large trees 
were growing at the place where the workmen began operations, and which 
were dug out and removed, and in no manner did the surface of the ground 
or the earth as they advanced in depth, show any indication of its ever hav- 
ing been disturbed, but lo ! at the depth of about twenty feet the workmen 
came upon a miner's hammer, drills, &c.* which had lain there, how long.'' 
Buried perhaps a century before, showing that some one had discovered and 
opened a mine there ong, long ago. How it became so thoroughly filled up 
again will ever be matter for conjecture. 

As another illustration of the early explorations of the mineral belt of 
the province, a great number of small lots of land, containing from one to 
twenty, or thirty acres, some of which stated explicitly that they were located 
for mine lots, some afterward referred to as such, v\'ere taken up among the 
mountains ranging from the Hudson river through the northern parts of now 
Passaic, Morris and Sussex Counties to the Delaware river. In 1726, such 
a survey was made at Pompton below the iroti works. In 1739, Cornelius 
Board located (then in the wilderness) one lot of three acres, and one of six 
acres, lying at Ringwood, and where the most valuable mines in that section 
now are. In 1751 a small survey was made on Jackson's ))ii)ie brook a lit- 
tle below 7nine hill, in the vicinity of Dover, and so we might enumerate 
scores of others ; and prior to 1750 the Pequanack river, the Rockaway river, 
and small mountain streams throughout the whole Northern part of the 
province found along their banks, numerous charcoal forges, and occasional- 
ly the lurid light of a furnace shone up through the dark ravines of the for- 
est. The fuel (charcoal) was made in abundance, and cheaply, from the 
timber so close at hand. The rapid fall in the mountain streams often made 
it possible to have the works but a short distance apart with an abundant 
supply of water assured, and the hills themselves furnished the ore for 
smelting. 

We have alluded to land as being one of the inducements to early ex- 
plorations. The short-sighted and mistaken policy of the proprietors in the 
matter of locating land, gave the land hunter an opportunity which he was 
not slow to avail himself of. He had the whole country before him, and 
could choose his " plantations" where he pleased. 

The land looked upon as most desirable and first chosen (except the 
mineral lands) were the valleys, such as would combine good tillable land, 
not too hilly, or rocky, with natural meadow. The latter seems to have been 
eagerly sought for, and first taken, it being the only dependence in keeping 
the stock through the Winter until tame grass could be cultivated for hay. 
There is no doubt that much of what is now unimproved and dense swamp 
in the Northern section of the State, was, in those days, free of trees and 
brush, the brush being killed as soon as starting, and kept down by the an- 

* They can now be seen at tue office of Messrs. Cooper & Hewitt, at Ringwood. 



25 

nual fires set by the Indians in the tall grass so as to destroy the cover for 
the game and make success in the chase the more easy. Many of those 
swamps still are known by the name of " meadow," and the writer knows of 
several, which, on account of brush, &c., are now almost impenetrable, but 
which have been mowed within the recollection of persons now living.* 

As early as 1695, Capt. Arent Schuyler received a license to purchase of 
the Indians 5500 acres " to be taken up by him to his best liking at or near 
Pakanac and Pontam," and in 1696 he associated himself with Anthony 
Brockhols and located the same, receiving a patent therefor from the Pro- 
prietors.t 

In 1699 a grant was made to George Willocks of 2000 acres, covering 
what is called the " lowlands" above the Two Bridges, adjoining the North 
side of the Passaic River and about six miles above Paterson. Prior to this, 
in 1691, a grant was made to John Moore and others of 13,500 acres extend- 
ing on the South side of the Passaic river from the Two Bridges to Whip- 
pany, now in Essex County, and covering the " Big Piece." 

In 17 18 we find them penetrating up the Pequanack and Wanaqua riv- 
ers, and locating 625 acres in what is now Wanaqua Valley, and in 1736 
Cornelius Board, following up said rivers, and the Ringwood river, a branch 
of the Wanaqua, located at Ringwood and Boardsville, several hundred acres 
in different lots. These last locations extended to and some beyond the present 
New York and New Jersey State line, the settlement of that line by commis- 
sioners in 1774 taking a large slice of land from the State of New Jersey. 

Though (as will be seen from Reading's Journal which we partly copy 
hereafter) the North-western part of the State was explored as early as in 
1 7 1 5 and some surveys made, still there does not seem to have been much 
land located in that vicinity until some years later. About that time, howev- 
er, Whippany, Parsippany and the lower part of the Rockaway River, were 
explored and located, and also about the same time Wm. Penn located about 
5,000 acres in three different tracts near Rockaway and in Rockaway Valley. 
Gradually, however, the valleys and then the mountains on the upper Rock- 
away, on the Musconetcong (coming up from the Delaware), were searched 
for land, and after about 1735 rnany locations were made in that section and 
actual settlers seem to have come in quite rapidly. In 1737, we find a sur- 
vey lying " near to a brook called by the Dutch, Rottegeval, a branch of the 
Rockaway river which it falls into by an Indian field called ' Rockaway' 
from which the river had its name." In 1749 one was located "at a place 

* There is a story related that In a certain hiw suit In which a large tract of 
"meadow," then swamp, was in dispute, a witness, an old lady of three score and ten, 
testified that when she was a clilld the whole tract was treeless, except one small tree, 
naming the kind and its location. Curiosity, mingled no doubt with a desire to impeach 
the old "ady's testimony, led some persons to search for the tree, which Lhey found, so 
accurate was her description, and. on cutting it down and counting its rings of yearly 
growth, they found that it confirmed the old lady's story. 

t This tract lies in what is now Passaic and Morris Counties, on both sides of the 
Pequanacli river, covermg part of the beautiful valley of Pompton Plains, extends from 
Pompton to the Passaic river, at the two bridges, and is about five miles long and two 
miles wide. Brockhols had a mill on it at Pompton. The distance is ab;:)ut 20 or 25 miles 
" back from Bergen" and the only road to it then a bridle path or Indian trail . 



26 

called by the Dutch, Oullekill, and by the English, Rockaway."* From this 
time onward the locations became numerous and the land was taken up rap- 
idly. 

We have also referred to " water power" as being one of the objects of 
search. As early as 1742 the Ogdens located nearly all the streams m what 
is now the Northern part of Passaic and Morris Counties, running a line up 
one side of the stream and then crossing it and running down the other, thus 
often making surveys one-half a mile, one or two miles long, and from four 
to ten, or fifteen rods wide. Parts of the Pequanack river, the Long Pond, 
or Wanaque river, Fisher's Brook, and other small streams, were thus lo- 
cated. 

To show the wild condition of our State a century and a half ago, now 
so populous and intersected at all points by public highways for travel, and 

by railroads and canals, we will copy from the Journal of Reading 

found in manuscript in the Library of the New Jersey Historical Society. 
This Mr. Reading seems to have been a surveyor. He mentions his father 
and he was probably the son of John Reading, who about this time located 
considerable land on his own rights. His christian name does not appear 
in his journal. The record is as followsf : — 

17th April, 171 5, John Budd, James Bollen, John Chapman, Jonathan 
Lad and L set out from fathers about three in the afternoon for Sol. Davis' 
upon the South branch of the Rarington river where we arrived just a nine 
of the clock the i8th. We waited at Sol's the day next for the arrival of 
Richard Buell and other Proprietors who came about nine o'clock fn the 
morning Edward Hemp and Benj. Hay along with him. We departed from 
Sol's about eleven of the clock, all of us except Hemp, for Jacob Poats upon 
Pasiach river. 

We went upon the North branch of Rarington as high as Andrew Den- 
ikes and struck from thence for said river and fell upon the branches of the 
dead river a little above the forks of the same. We continued our 
course about North East till we came to a great swamp and went down the 

same to P river and along the same to the said Jacob Poats where we 

arrived about 8 o'clock. This day we had a very great thunder gust attend- 
ed with a great deal of rain. 

19th. We departed from Jacob Poats and went down Passaic river 
along the side thereof the same running very dead, till we came to the road 
that leads from Whippany to Elizabeth-town. We went up the same by 
John Cramer's where John Budd, John Ladd, Benj. Hey and John Chap- 
man came from looking of land who departed from us in the morning about 
two miles below Poats, and the said Budd and we went out again, but we 
kept the road to Jeremiah OsbournsJ where we lodged that night. 

On the 20th it rained and they stayed at Osborne's, but on the 21st 
"John Budd, Bullen, Chapman and a guide and I went to look out for land. 
We crossed Whippening and went by a great meadow§ lying upon said river 
and crossing we went to Rackaway river where we met Joseph Kirkbride, 

• These tracts we have thus far been uaable to locate deflnltely, but believe them 
to be between Powervllle and Rockaway. 

t In the original but little attention Is paid to dotting I's or crossing t's, or to 
punctuation. 

X Jeremiah Osborne located 300 acres" whereon he Is now seated," In ITIT, bounded 
by the Whippany river and where Bemr branch runs Into the same. 

§ Troy meadows. 



27 

George Ryerson and others. We all sought the forks of Rack and Wyr* 
and so went back through the woods to Osborne's where we slept that night. 

22nd. Surv'eyed, and on the 23rd, went to survey Wm. Penn's lot but 
the water being out and otherwise being very difficult we could not survey 
the same — returned and lodged at Mawris Mawisons.f 

24th. Jonathan Ladd, John Chapman and I in the morning went over to 
George RyersonsJ upon Pequannock river. From thence we went down to 
the fall of Pasiac river where we beheld the Great and Wonderfull cataracts 
and clefts of the same the water falling by computation about fifty or sixty 
foot into a cavity of a rock from thence making its way oppressively into a 
still pond from whence it declined very rapidly in a great stream for about 
one fourth of a mile; we returned back to Ryerson's, from there to Mauris- 
on's ; we went over Pasiack to Symon Vaness' but returned that night to 
said Maurison's where we slept. This day we met with Corse Vroome and 
some Indians at Passaic falls who were designed for father's (house) to re- 
ceive their pay for the last Indian purchase.§ 

25th. We went and finished Gov. Penn's survey and went to Osborne's 
that night where we lodged. This day at night we met with some New 
England men who came to treat about purchasing of lands. We likewise 
received information how that the Sheriff of Essex County and several other 
gentlemen came on the 23rd inst. with design to stop our proceedings, but 
it not answering their expectations they returned back the next morning, 

26th. I surveyed a lott for Wm. Penn * * and returned to Osbornes 
where met father and Samuel Groom who came from upper parts of Dela- 
ware, this night likewise came the Indians on the way to our house. * * 

27th, 28th. Surveying was done but the weather was rainy. 

29th. An order was granted to John Chapman to go along with John 
Budd to survey 1 1 th and 17th lots. They went up Pasiack river * * this 
night came Andrew Hall and Mahlan Stacy. 

30th. Thomas Stevenson having i',one toward Pequannock, and Mahlon 
Stacy being but newly come * * their lots not being fixed we surveyed 
none this day. Cox, Buell, Haywood and I went for Ryerson's — we met 
with Stevenson and Geo. Ryerson at H. Davis upon Rockaway river where 
Stevenson seemed to fix upon a lot but by reason of his unreasonable de- 
mands we did not proceed. We three went along with Ryerson that night 
to his house and there lodged. 

May I . Reading, Buell and Hay left Ryersons and visited Passaic Falls 
again, and then returned to Whippany ; the next two days were spent sur- . 
veying in that vicinity. 

May 4th. I surveyed * * we met Thomas Stevenson who pitched 
upon a lot. I went along with him to Paulus Vanderbeek's|| upon Pequan- 
ock River where we lodged all night. This day came Essex Sheriff again 
and served a writ upon Richard Bull and John Budd for the New York 
Company for the damage of fifteen pounds. We likewise killed three ratt e- 
snakes being the first that we saw. 

May 5th. They went to run Stevenson's lot, but he seems to have been 
very hard to suit, and would not take it. They returned to Osborne's, and 

* Is this another name for Rockaway ? 

t Have been unable to designate the place where this " Mawlsou" lived. 

t Living, no doubt, at what Is now known as Pacquanac, where many descendants 
of the original Ryersons still live. 

§ We do not know exactly how many miles the party traveled this day, but Maur- 
ison's was undoubterlly somewhere between the Whippany and Rockaway rivers, so they 
went to the Passaic falls at Patei-son via. Montvllle, Pompton Plains and Pacquanac, 
and retui-nlng the same way left Maurison's again and crossed the Passaic by a ford, no 
doubt and returned. The whole distance, going and returning, must have been between 
30 and 40 miles, which, with bridle paths through the woods for roads, shows at least 
commendable Industry. 

II Paulus Vanderbeek was one of the original owners of part of Pompton Plains, 
Morris County. 



28 

Richard Bull, and John Budd went with the Sheriff to Newark. " We had 
likewise a thunder gust." 

May 6th. I surveyed * * Bull and Budd arrived from Newark, who 
gave bail. 

7th to loth. Surveyed during the day and lodged at Osborne's at night. 

nth, Our horses ran away so that we could not go into the woods * 
* young Cramer went after our horses and found them in the Great Swamp. 
(Some distance below Morristown.) 

May 12. Went mto the woods upon the Rockaway * * lodged by 
the Rockaway river. 

13th. * * Met with Richard Bull and others, who showed us black 
lead which they got out of the hills back of Passaick river. 

1 5th. We designed for Pahuckqualong, but at our departure father and 
several others came ; we set out thirteen in company and lodged that night 
in an Indian town called on Joseph Kirkbride's land. 

1 6th. We passed over Suckasunning where some gathered iron stone : 
we crossed the head of both the branches of Rarington ; and over Muskent- 
kong river, being part of the Delaware river ; when we had crossed this river 
we met with limestone, being the first we saw. We arrived at Allamuch 
Ahokkingen* in the afternoon being an Indian plantation * * just before 
we came to said plantation we had sight of Pahackqualong and of the cleft 
where the river Deleware passes through the samet * * in the evening 
we missed one of our company named Benjamin Wright whom a little while 
after we heard making an unusual noise, sometimes calling upon the Lord 
for mercy, other times talking very idly, complaining of the badness of the 
company — that he apprehended that the mountains were ready to fall upon 
him — he seemed to be seized with a delirium and proved very restless all night. 

May 17th. Three of the party were detailed to conduct the diseased per- 
son home. 

May 1 8th. Shawwenoes Indians opposed surveying and so we depart- 
ed. * * 

May 19th. We set forward in the morning for the cleft in the aforesaid 
mountain where the river passes through. In our way we could not lind 
any good land. We arrived at the same about ten of the clock — the passage 
of the river here is narrow but it runneth deep. S. G. and I went up the same 
to a rock which shoots from the hill to the river and deneys a passage for a 
path any further, which is about 20 foot high, against which we set an In- 
dian ladder ; we ascended the same and at the top thereof left those letters 
R. S. 171 5, and descended. We' kept the rivers side which seems to run 
about Northwest way down to the aforesaid hill where we got our dinner 
and took up our quarters, it raining very fast part of the afternoon, and 
lodged there all night. 

May 20th. We surveyed * * at our return * * we met father, 
Richard Bull, F. W. and John Chapman who were gathering slate at the 

foot of the hill. * * We all went to the we had made the night 

before, and there we slept ; father relating the discoveries made by them, 
viz : of a large lake at the head of one of the branches of the Muskonethcong 

called Huppachong,! and of a rock called at the head of the other 

branch, to ascend which an Indian ladder was set up against the same ; on 
the top of which grow gooseberry bushes in all things resembling the Euro- 
pean save only prickles upon the twigs of the bushes — of large springs in 
which grow plenty of angelico and several varieties. 

May 21. In the morning a dissention arose among the people. Rich'd 
Bull was wholly bent for going home and having Samuel Green his deputy. 

• No doubt now Allamucby, Sussex County, 
t Delaware Water Gap. 
t LakeHopatcong. 



29 

Several arguments were used to divert him from it, but to no purpose. He 
gave him a general deputation for the county of Hunterdon, without excep- 
tion, at which father was very much displeased because he had a right to 
lands in the old purchase as yet unlocated to lay which I was forced to leave 
the business to John Chapman and go along with him to lay it out. We 
parted near Penunqueachong father and I making our way for Allamucha- 
pokking the rest going down the river. * * 

May 22. Left Allamucha * * kept a path which led to a very pleas- 
ant pond* being upon the head of a branch of Rarington, south branch 
called, being near a mile over and about two miles in length ; kept the path 
about two miles farther to an Indian plantation called Chanongong where 
we slept that night. 

May 23. We went back in the morning to aforesaid pond where we laid 
out a tract having got an Indian to help us, and lay there by the pond all 
night. 

May 24. We waited in the morning for some venison which the afore- 
said Indian promised to bring us, but failed. Went to the Indian planta- 
tion where we Surveyed and it raining very fast in the afternoon lodged 
there all night. 

May 25. Father set forward to go home. I went to set him in the path 
as far as the North Branch of the Rarington — he took the path for Pepack 
and I went back for Allamucha where I arrived about two hours before 
night and whither after awhile came Joseph Wright, Thomas Weatherill and 
John Chapman who had been surveying a lot for Wm. Penn. All lodged 
there that night. 

May 26. Wright set forward for home. I and the rest having an In- 
dian for our guide called Nomalughalen went upon the discovery. We took 
the path towards Tohockowtcong river crossing Paquessing (river) then the 
Indian seemed very unwilling to go any further that way, saying that Tohoh- 
howtong Indians would be angry with him for showing their land ; he went 
home again. * * returned to Allamucha. 

May 27-28. Still surveying in this region. 

May 29. We had a design to leave these parts. We took the path to 
Paquessing where Samuel Cireen had promised to leave a note with informa- 
tion of their proceedings at an Indian wickwam, but we found none. We 
baited our horses, and refreshed ourselves awhile and then set forward — ar- 
rived at Muskonetkong about half an hour after sunset, went a little below 
the path and lodged there all night. 

May 30. Explored down the Muskonetkong. * * We found an In- 
dian called Nopuck and his son a fishing ; they had two fish ready roasted, 
one they gave us and told us if we would stay till his sons caught more, 
(who then went out with their bows and arrows to shoot the same) he would 
give us some. We staid awhile, and they not coming, departed, * * we 
began to enter into extraordinary swarms of locusts, we not having made 
any observation of them before this time * * we lay along the side of 
the river all night, by computation from our nights lodging before about 
twelve miles. 

May 31. Surveyed along said Muskonetkong river. 
^3^ June I. We traversed the river still higher with intention to lay out a 
lott for Mahlon Stacy, and completed the same, when after our arrival at our 
horses Thomas Stevenson and Samuel Green came up the river in quest of 
us and told us that our labors there bestowed upon the river was all in vain 
for they had surveyed that land before us. In the end it proved they 
had laid out a lott which was prior to ours and interfered with Mahlon's. 
We discoursed for an accommodation but Stevenson would not condescend, 
so after a multiplicity of words pro and con we went together down the riv- 

• Budd's Lake. 



30 

er where they had left their provisions with another hand and an Indian 
called Pishot — when we came the Indian was gone. After a little refresh- 
ment we set homeward * * the reasons for our return so soon, our pro- 
visions were spent, our horses had cast their shoes, and our own shoes were 
worn out and our apparel gone to decay, so that we wanted to recruit. 

June 2nd. We arrived at home in health and safety a little after noon. 
Laus Deo." 

The next year he took another trip, and as the record of it is short we 
will copy the narrative of it also : — 

May, 1 716. He started again from his father's house in Amwell, with 
John Chapman and John Scott — went over the Dead river on a bridge — 
took about the same route Northerly as before, and on June ist again visited 
Lake Huppahong and describes it as being " a mile or more over, five or six 
miles in length, and well stored with fish and a very pleasant place. Here 
we took up our lodgings in an Indian wigwam." 

June 3rd. After describing the first part of the day's journey, " saw a 
meadow to South west of us for which we designed that night, but were 
prevented by a thunder gust attended with a mighty deal of rain, which was 
a great annoyance to us for we were very hard set to get fire as well as shel- 
ter, where we lodged all night very wet ; we had every day as well as this 
abundance of rain so that our cloaths had never been dry since that day we 
came from Whippening." 

From this time for several days they were looking up lots of meadow 
land and surveying the same until the 8th. " Our provisions began to draw 
to a conclusion and there was none to be had amongst them — lodged all 
night upon a lime-stone rock. 

June 9. Journeying homeward. Crossed the South East branch of the 
Mnskonetkong about a mile below the Great Pond, from thence to Sucka- 
soning where we gathered some iron stone. 

June 10. In the morning we stood for Corse Vroom's. We went 
through Pepack an old Indian plantation where we gathered strawberries 
* * thence to Corse's where we arrived in health but with empty bellies. 
Laus Deo !" 

And thus ends our chapter of Early Explorations. We can hardly re- 
alize that Reading's Journal is describing our own State only one hundred 
and sixty-five years ago. That Passaic Falls, the Delaware Water Gap, 
Lake Hopatcong and the iron stone of Succasunna were then new curiosi- 
ties and wonders. That parties of men were then on foot and horseback, 
with Indians as guides, taking up land, and exploring a new and unknown 
country. Now all this is changed. The fertile soil of the valleys, the wood 
on the hill sides, the ores in the mountains, all contribute to the support of 
a teeming population, for which we may exclaim with the early explorer and 
surveyor, — Laus Deo! God be praised ! 



CHAPTER IV. 

Ramapo Trottbles. 



While much has been said and written about the disputes and troubles 
of the early settlers of Middletown, Elizabethtown and Newark, the broils 
and difficulties which afflicted for nearly a century the settlers of the large 
section of the State lying between the Ramapo and Saddle Rivers, in what is 
now the greater portion of Hohokus and Franklin Townships in Bergen 
County, and part of Pompton Township in Passaic County, have remained 
entirely unchronicled. The only notice which the writer has ever seen of 
them is in the records at Perth Amboy, from which the following facts are 
mostly gleamed. 

On the 25th of April, 1710, William Boyd, under a warrant from Peter 
Soumans, returned a survey of forty-two thousand five hundred acres lying 
as above stated.* The survey must have been made, however, sometime 
previously, for on the loth Dec, 1709,! " Peter Soumans, Sole Agent, Super- 
intendent, and General Attorney, and Receiver General of the rest of the 
Proprietors, effectually representing the whole twenty-four Proprietors," &c., 
conveyed the said tract to John Auboineau, E. Boudinot, Peter Franconier, 
L. Keistred, John Barberie, Thomas Barjaux, Andrew Fresneau and Peter 
Bard. As this grant was the origin of all the trouble which followed, and 
as it gives quite a detinite description of the surface of the ^country, together 
with some original names, we copy the most of it : — 

* * " Said Peter Soumans authorized to purchase vacant and unap- 
propriated and of the Indians, in consideration of ^200, delivered said In- 
dians, hath purchased a certain tract * * on the North East side of New- 
ark. Be inning at a spring called Assenmaykapahaka being the North- 
Eastmost head spring of a river called in Indian Peramsepuss, and by the 
Christians Saddle River, thence running Southerly down the East side of 
said river including the same to a place where a small creek, or river, com- 
ing from the Northward called Raighkawack, J falls into said Saddle river, about 
sixteen miles distant from the above head spring let it be more or less, thence 
Northwesterly just by a great rock, or stone called Pammackapuka distant 
from the above said river about 2 miles and so on the same course to that 
river known by the name Romopock, Punto, and Pissaick just by a small 

* Penh Amboy, Book 1, page 322. 
t Itoid, p. 411. 

X Map of 1T68, Hawliawkus River— modern Hokokus K. 



32 

fall of water above the plantation of Major Brockholst ;* and from thence 
crossing the said river about a mile above a place where another river com- 
ing from the Northwestward called Panamaquamy, Pequaneck and Haysagh- 
kinf falls into said river, to the top of the opposite mountain ; thence along 
the top of the said mountains and up said Romapuck river, and about one 
mile up every creek that falls into the said river crossing said creeks to the 
top of every opposite hill, and so along said mountains and hills and creeks 
to a place about two miles above an Indian field called Mowaywayj just over 
against the North side of a small red hill called Mainaitung ; thence along 
the Northeasterly side of said hill Easterly to the above spring where the 
first course began. To have and to hold as by a certain deed from the na- 
tive Indians dated i8 Nov. 1709 * * to said Peter Soumans for the use 
of all the other Proprietors * * and whereas said monies in said consid- 
eration before recited were the goods & merchandise of * * (the parties 
of the second part) now in consideration of said moneys and the further sum 
of ;£2oo, the said Peter Soumans doth convey &c. * * to be divided as 
follows : John Auboineau three twenty-fourth parts, Peter Franconier seven, 
L. Kiested two, John Barberie three, Thomas Bayeau two, Andrew Fres- 
neau two, Peter Bard two, and E. Boudinot three twenty-fourth parts, pay- 
ing therefore every Christmas day, if demanded, one ear of Indian corn." 

The Board of Proprietors disputed the validity of this Deed from Sou- 
mans on the grounds that he had not sufficient authority to make a deed. 
The first thing we find in the record indicating trouble is in a report to the 
Board from Richard Ashfield and John Rochead, dated April 15. 1737, 
about twenty-seven years after the survey was made, that they went with 
Martin Ryerson to lay out 4,000 acres on the most Northerly branch of the 
Romapock, (in Peter Soumans' survey) but were interrupted and threatened 
by the settlers so that they could not lay it out in small lots.§ 

As will be seen by reference to the deed from Soumans above quoted, 
Peter Franconier held the largest interest in the said tract, his proportion 
being seven twenty-fourth parts of the whole. On the 4th day of February, 
1744, he conveyed "all his estate, right, title and interest in said tract" to 
Theodore Vallew and David Stout ;|| and on the loth August, 1752, they con- 
veyed the same to Magdalene Valleau.^I 

It seems, also, from the recital in a deed,** that Peter Franconier on the 
loth of April, 1745, conveyed all his real estate in New York and New Jer- 
sey to said Magdalene Valleau. She is said to be, in the Minutes of Coun- 
cil, the daughter of William Franconier. 

In 1742 the Proprietors made an agreement with her to buy out her in- 
terest in said tract. The terms of the contract were to be kept secret, and 
she was to receive 900 acres of land, and each of her children 300 acres, or 
3,000 acres in all.tt 

Why this agreement was not complied with at the time is not clear, but 

• Pompton, at now the steel Works, 
t Now Pequanack river. 
X .Mawaws. 

§ Minutes of Council, Book A. page— 
II P A. Records A B 2, page 155. 
t P. A. Records A B 3, page 321. 
•• P. A. Records, A B 3, page 388. 
tt Mia. or Council, A, page 126. 



33 
on the 29th of March. 1753, John and William Burnet, and Cortlandt Skin- 
ner, being authorized by a warrant from the Proprietors, conveyed to her the 
said 900 acres.* The recital in this deed gives the early history of the dis- 
pute in a concise and straightforward manner. It is as follows : — 

" Whereas Peter Soumans in the name of the Proprietors of the Eastern 
Division of New Jersey, made a deed of a large tract of land at and near Roma- 
pock to John Amboyneau and others, * * and whereas the said Propretors 
conceiving that the said Peter Soumans had not sufficient authority, or power to 
make a deed, caused sundry actions to be commenced in the Supreme Court of 
New Jersey for making good their rights to the land included in the said Deed, 
and whereas one of those causes came to a trial in the term of August, 1740, 
wherein after proving the title of the Proprietors, the defendant gave in evi- 
dence the said deed and sundry other matters to which the Counsel for the 
said Proprietors did tender a demurrer, by which they, the said Proprietors, 
admitted all the facts given in the evidence by the defendant to be true, but 
yet they made no title in law to the defendant, and as the points in question 
were merely matters of law, they submitted them to the judge of the Court, 
but the defendants council did not think proper to joyn in demurrer, but 
chose to waive all evidence and left the matter to the jury without any evi- 
dence on their parts, and yet the jury without any evidence of title in the de- 
fendant gave a verdict for him. and whereas the said Magdalen Valleau be- 
ing possessed of the lands hereby granted under the color of the said Deed 
from Peter Soumans * * rather than contend with the said Proprietors 
at law has come to an amicable agreement with them, &c. &c." 

On the same day, 29th of March, 1753, she released to the Proprietors 
all her claims in said large tractt. 

It does not appear that the said law-suit was farther pressed, but the 
Proprietors seem to have pursued a different policy to get possession of the 
land. Where parties would take leases, they leased to them, the lessee thus 
acknowledging title in the Proprietors ; and they also purchased from, or 
compromised with the other claimants as appears by record twenty years 
later, for April 7, 1771, a "Committee appointed to examine into the claim- 
of Esther Lowther, devisees of Elizabeth Bickley, as to Romapock, report 
she was never entitled to any part of the lands there, as it appears the whole 
of Ramapo was invested in John Barbene six-twelfths, Peter Franconier four- 
twelfths, Andrew Fresneau one-twelfth, and Luke Kiested one-twellth, from 
whom releases have been obtained by the Proprictors."\ Amboineau, Bard, 
Boudinot and Barjeaux, seem to have conveyed to Franconier, Barberie, 
Fresneau and Keisted their interests, and just when the latter released to the 
Proprietors we are not informed. § However, before such releases, they 
must have sold, or leased to parties occupying the tract, as from those who 
claimed rights under them came the disturbance. 

That these disturbances at times assumed a threatening appearance, if 
indeed not open violence, is evidenced by a Resolution passed by the Board 
of Proprietors 16 August, 1746; " That the tenants (at Romopock) stand in 
their own defence as far as in their power without endangering their own 
lives * * and if by superior force any tenants are turned out of possession. 

* P. A. Records A B 3, 382. 

t P. A. Records A B 3, page 388. 

X Minutes of Couacll. A. page 98. 

§ John Barberie released to Prop. In 1774. A B 2. page 56. 



34 

the Board promises to pay all daiiages."* Seventeen years later at a time 
of renewing the leases, (August 19, i7t)3), Peter Fresneau and Crean Brush 
were arrested for making commotions. At this time one hundred and twen- 
ty-three leases were renewed.f What proportion of the whole number of 
settlers this was we have no means of knowing, but evidently the tract at 
this time contained a large number of families. 

A number of the tenants havmg refused to renew their leases, at a 
meeting of the Board held in 1764, (Sept. 15th), it was "ordered that the 
Romapock Committee take proper steps in law against such of their tenants 
as have refused to take out new leases, or deUver possession."]: 

During the years 1767 and 1768 the Board employed George Ryerse, 
(Ryerson,) Jonathan Hampton and Benjamin Morgan to survey and make a 
map of all the disputed tract, laying out and dividing the same into lots. 
The lots were laid out in irregular shapes, and in different sizes, ranging 
from 40 acres to 1,100 acres, according as there seemed demand for them, or 
owing to the nature of the ground.§ 

When these lots were afterward sold, (as they were, under individual 
warrants ; see the close of this chapter), they were mostly resurveyed and 
patents given for them the same as for other proprietary lands. The resur- 
vey, in almost every case, differs somewhat from the original survey and 
map.ll 

After the map was made it seems to have been decided by the Board to 
sell the lands rather than lease them. But the success in selling was not 
according to their expectations, as witness a report made by Mr. Cuyler 16 
April, 1773, as follows: — 

" Mr. Cuyler from Committee to sell lands in Ramapo reported * * 
We found many difficulties in selling in the manner we flattered ourselves. 
First, the land is much overrated for in general it is very stony, poorly tim- 
bered, & much wore out so that very little of it will bear wheat, and but very 
poor crops of rye. Some farmers are obliged to buy rail timber, and the 
tenants are miserably poor. 

" Second, the leases give six months for notice of expiration, by which they 
expect so long before any payment in case of sale, and if notice were given 
they might damage the farms. 

"Third, by allowing them to assign their leases they are constantly shift- 
ing and jobbing, selling what they call their improvements at a high rate, 
selling off part of their leases, so low as five acres, by which increasing the 
tenemants ruins the timber. 

" Fourth, some rent wood lots that live on land they bought or hold un- 

» Minutes of Couacll, A, p. 33S. 

t Ibid, page 536. 

t lb. B. p. 7. 

5 Tlie original map Is in the office of tne Proprtetors at Perth Amboy. Is It on sheep 
skin parchment and about four teet square, and is badly worn and much of the writing 
obliterated. There Is a copy In the library of the New . I ersey lllst. Society at Newark, 
made also on parchment, but Is more worn and obliterated than the original. The author 
has been able from the two to make one complete map, probably now the only one ex- 
taut. 

li It may be lnt:^resUng to know the cost of such labor at that day. Jonathan Hamp- 
ton received £61 I3s. lOd. ; Ben] Morgan, £94 6s. 4d. Ryerson had a general account 
with the Board. Allowing him the same as Morgan received would make about $1,250 for 
over a year's work by three men. Surely not a very prodigious amount for such service. 

Mln. of Council Sept. 15, 1T68, B. page 65. 



35 

der Franconier. One lives in Paramas (Zabriskie) and by carting the tim- 
ber gives a bad precedent to the poor tenants. 

" Fifth, as they now sett at trifling rents, they associated and spirited 
up each other to continue as they were, or not to offer more than fifteen 
shillings per acre. As the greater part of those who agreed, for lands they 
had bought of Peter Franconier and others, to pay the General Proprietors 
have not complied with their agreement and have associated to defend each 
or'" •■ it is submitted if some steps be taken against them."* 

This report was three years prior to the Declaration of Independence. 
Already the country was much agitated, and excited, and soon followed the 
stirring scenes of the Revolution. On the 13th of April, 1776, the last reg- 
ular meeting of the Board was held until after the close of the war. During 
all this interval, from 1773 to 1785, we have no record of the doings of the 
people of Romopock. They no doubt continued to use and occupy the lands 
free of charge with no one to molest them in their possessions. The mem- 
bers of the Board were scattered, some in Europe, some in New York with- 
in the British lines, some loyal and true to the country of their adoption, giv- 
ing hand and purse toward the success of its cause. The Board of Proprie- 
tors was practically defunct, and for the time being the Ramapo disputes 
were ended. 

But the return of peace to the country at large, was only the return of 
trouble again to the now re-established Board, and the people of the Ramapo 
tract. On the 14th April, 1785, we have another report from the committee 
who went to Ramapo to sell lands. This time the committee were Messrs. 
Stevens and Rutherfurd : — 

" We left New York on Monday, 28th March, but the roads and weather 
being very bad we only reached Hoppers-town the next day, where we 
heard the tenants were in great commotion ; had trumped up many 
strange pretentions and thrown out many threats. The 30th there 
was a bad storm. The 31st many assembled but in general they 
wanted new leases on the old footing * * but we told them our present 
purpose was only to sell. * * We had a petition in high terms delivered 
to us, and as they vv^ere assembled in great numbers out of doors, and in 
other rooms, they desired to be heard by two of their number on the subject 
of the petition which was signed by eighty persons, which we complied with, 
when the\ enlarged on what is sett forth in the petition which we now lay be- 
fore the Board. We gave them our verbal answers asserting our full rights 
to the lands, the lenity we had always shown them, our favor in remitting 
three years rent, and our intention of selling on easy terms, &c. With which 
answer their speaker returned. We sold about 933 Acres to eight persons 
for $5,200."t 

But we are now drawing to the close of the difficulty. On the 14th 
April, 1787, two years after the above report, we find the Ramapock Com- 
mittee again reporting to the BoardJ : — 

" We arrived on the 24th of January last at Hoppers-town at Paramus. 
Determined the best mode to treat with the tenants was to begin at lot No. 
1, and summons a number each day to avoid confusion, or cabal — to rent by 
lots instead of one hundred acres — to lease low for one year to obtain pos- 
session. * * On the whole the committee are happy in assuring the Board 

» Mln. Council B. page 136. 
t Mln. Council B— 2ii5. 
t lb. B— p. 29S. 



36 

that they believe there will be no further trouble with the tenants of Roma- 
pock, and expect the tract in two or three years to produce a handsome rev- 
enue." 

And the committee in their prognostications for the future were correct, 
at least as far as trouble was concerned. The Board acqui red full posses- 
sion, and on the i8th September, 1790,* at a stated meeting proceeded to the 
division of the Romapock lands. They were divided i nto one ninety-sixth 
of a share of Propriety, or one ninety-sixth of one twenty -fourth part of the 
Eastern Division of New Jersey. Some held more and some less of these 
one ninety-sixths parts. Warrants were issued to each one for the amounts 
due them, and thus the Ramapo lands passed out of the possession of the 
Board, as a whole, to individual owners. The holders of these warrants from 
time to time located their lands or sold to the settlers ; the lots were resur- 
veyed, and patents given the same as for other proprietory lands ; and thus 
ended, after a continuance of eighty years, the trouble, as to titles, of the 
settlers of the " Romapock" tract. 

♦ MIn. Council B, p. 345. 



CHAPTER V. 

Division of Lands Among the Proprietors, Early Surveying, Its 

Mode, Gr^c. 



We have heretofore taken exception to the system employed by the early 
Proprietors in laying out their lands, and which, indeed, has continued until 
the present day without any apparent desire on the part of the later Proprie- 
tors to change it, even when this might have been possible. In this chapter 
we shall try to show the method, as also its necessary results. 

We have already shown how twenty-four owners, or proprietors, became 
vested in their title in fee simple to the lands in the Eastern Division of New 
Jersey. Holding their lands as tenants in common there were two ways in 
which as a Board they could dispose of them, — either by sale to outsiders, or 
by dividing them among themselves, and each individual taking his own por- 
tion. Each plan was at times adopted, but it must not be understood that 
either in the sales or divisions, the land was actually run out or surveyed and 
described by metes and bounds. Had this been done, the inextricable con- 
fusion which now involves the lines and location of lots, and which has 
caused so much trouble and liti^^ation during the past and present, and which 
is destined to continue throughout generations in the future, would have 
been avoided. 

On the contrary, a division signified only the granting to each proprietor 
of a certain proportion of warrants, or rights, good for the number of acres 
specified therein. Perhaps some extracts from the minutes of Council will 
more fully explain the plan pursued than any other description which can be 
given. We find in the entry 31st October, 1730: — ■ 

" Agreed that another dividend be made allowing 2,000 Acres to each 
Propriety and so in proportion to a greater or lesser share of Propriety, said 
dividend to be made three years after date hereof, and it is ordered that 
Richard Ashfield, Treasurer, advertise (the same) in the English newspapers 
and the A^civ York Gazette."* * * 

It does not give us a very exalted idea of the business methods of the 
early Proprietors, or of their strictness in looking after their subordinates, 
when we find sez>en years after the above " agreement" such an entry on the 
minutes as the following : — 

"6th August, 1737, 'Whereas in October, 1730, a division of 2,000 
Acres was ordered and advertising was entirely neglected, it is ordered that 
such division be two years after this date ; that after two years from this div- 
idends be ordered yearly thereafter till the whole undivided lands be laid 
out.' " * * 

* A— page 35. 



38 

On the same day, at the same meeting, a draft of an advertisement was 
presented to the Board by Joseph Murry and James Alexander, which gives 
us an inside view of the worlcing of the system, and also of the manner in 
which the shares of Proprieties were scattered at home and abroad. 
The draft is as follows : — 

" Whereas it is agreed by Council of Proprietors of the E. D. of New 
Jersey that there shall be a farther division of 2,000 A. to each Propriety or 
one twenty-fourth part of the said E. D. * * and after two years there shall 
be a further division until all said lands in common be divided and appro- 
priated * * are therefore to notify to all Proprieties, and share of Pro- 
prieties in said Eastern Division, whether inhabiting in Great Britain, or 
elsewhere, that they do either come, or send, or appoint in this Province 
proper persons to elect and locate all the past dividends of land due to them 
within the two years aforesaid — and after the said two years to elect and lo- 
cate the division of 2,000 Acres appointed as aforesaid, and such further 
yearly dividends of lands as shall from time to time be thought proper to be 
made. On failure thereof they must blame themselves if the best land be 
elected and divided before they come, and that the worst is left for them to 
divide afterwards, for that the interest of the said division, and of the Pro- 
prietors thereof has already much suffered by past delays, &c."* 

We find no record that the annual divisions ever took place. On the 
contrary thirty-six years after (Sept. 18, 1773,!) we find it ordered " that they 
proceed to make a dividend * * by allottment, and all persons holding 
any shares of Propriety, or part of shares which are not yet recorded or en- 
tered with the Register are required to bring to the Register as soon as pos- 
sible an account of said shares * * and the Register is required to in- 
form such persons of the mode of division now agreed on that they may 
class their shares of propriety with any other Proprietor that they can agree 
with in order to make up one-quarter of a propriety." * * The Register 
was also to inform such persons " in case it appears at any time before the 
last class of lots be drawn for, that any prior locations have been made with- 
in the bounds of any lot drawn for * * such person shall be entitled to 
an equal quantity of land of like quality * * on any lands unlocated." 

From the Minutes a year later (Sept. 17, 1774-+) ^^ would appear that at 
this time the Board were actually having the land surveyed " preparatory to 
a general division," for it was requested by them of the Surveyor General 
'• that he will not locate to any holder of Rights any part of the lots which 
have been so surveyed." 

But this work, and final division, appears to have never been accom- 
plished, probably interfered with by the War for Freedom which so soon 
followed. After that event the old plan was adhered to, for on the i6th 
Sept., 1785, the Board " Resolved that a Division be now made of 4500 Acres 
to each Propriety of one twenty-fourth part of the E. D. of New Jersey * 
* which division shall be called in future the fourth division." 

It can readily be seen by the above record how that the " rights" or 
" warrants" acquired by these divisions would become distributed among 

* Mln. Council A.— p. 48. 
. t lb. B— 149. 
t lb. p. 1T2. 



39 
many holders, and how they, selling parts of their shares to different buyers, 
the owners would soon become very numerous, and how these parties having 
rights, in their search for the best land, without any concert of action, would 
naturally fix upon and lay their warrants upon the same lots, or overlap 
their lots one upon another, not knowing of any prior location. And this 
was of continual occurrence. 

It was necessary for the buyer of rights to receive a deed for the same 
from the party from whom he purchased, and it was required that this deed 
be recorded in the office of the Board by their Register. The amount pur- 
chased was then placed to the credit of the buyer and deducted from the ac- 
count of the seller. It could thus be seen by the Board at all times how 
much land (or rights) stood to the credit of each mdividual. When a loca- 
tion was made by any person, the survey, made by a Deputy Surveyor, was 
sent in to the Surveyor General, and if correct, he, the Surveyor General, 
was ordered to issue a patent for the land, describing it as per the survey by 
courses and distances, and the number of acres which it contained were 
charged up against the " rights" of the party for whom the location was 
made. Often, after a lot had been located, sometimes for years, it was dis- 
covered that the land had been taken up by prior surveys, and as in law pri- 
ority of location held the land, it became necessary to the party holding the 
later survey to have the land resurveyed by a Deputy Surveyor, and the fact 
certified to by him that such a tract of land, or part of a tract, was mislocat- 
ed on a prior survey. The Board then issued a mislocation right to the un- 
fortunate party whose plantation lay on the top of another man's, which was 
placed to his credit on the books of the Register, and then he was in a posi- 
tion to sally out again to locate another tract with perhaps the same result. 
If the original party who made the later location had sold the land before the 
" lap" was discovered, the innocent purchaser must repurchase, or lose his 
land. His only recourse was to the party of whom he bought. 

We have thus shown the manner of dividing the land among the hold- 
ers of Proprietary rights. It remains to speak of the other plan sometimes 
employed — selling it, or what this implied, selling the rights either by pubHc 
or private sale to locate it. These rights, or warrants, issued to outside pur- 
chasers, or to those not belonging to the Board, were of the same force, and 
were in all things the same — having the same rights of location, as the war- 
rants divided to the proprietors. The plan generally was to sell in loo acre 
lots. It may be interesting to know what land (or right of location) was 
considered worth at various times during the last century. At a sale of 
J IOC acres 21 August, 1741, the price brought was ^21 ids per 100 acres. 
About si.\ty-six cents per acre. At a sale made in 1752, March 26, " to raise 
money to pay litigation and other expenses," 1500 acres were sold at public 
vendue and brought from ^25 to ;^27 per 100 acres. Ten years later, in 176 1 
and 1762, five thousand two hundred acres were sold for from ,£75 to ^85 
per 100 acres. The warrants were sometimes issued for "good rights" and 
sometimes for "pine rights," the latter implying the poorer land. 

We have explained the system of the Proprietors in locating their lands. 



40 

and we will now notice the agents they employed in their work, and the man- 
ner of their doing it. 

Their chief land officer was the Surveyor General. He appointed the 
Deputy-Surveyors, who retained office during his pleasure without any re- 
striction as to number, examined their surveys and gave orders to have pat- 
ents issued it approved, signing each patent or return himself. The Depu- 
ties and chain-bearers must all be sworn, which often put the latter to se- 
rious inconvenience at the first, for on March 17, 1747, we find it recorded 
that the Board " considering the trouble and expense attending the present 
method of taking up land by reason of the chain-bearers being obliged to 
travel sometimes 20 or 30 miles or more to be sworn before a Justice of the 
Peace, are of opmion that trouble might be saved by obtaining a com- 
mission under the Great Seal empowering the Surveyor General, or his Dep- 
uties, to administer such oaths." The Deputies took the oath of office at the 
time of their appointment. 

The office of Deputy-Surveyor, however, was not a wonderfully lucra- 
tive one. In 1749, the Board ordered the Surveyor General to write to his 
Deputies and direct them not to exceed 10 shillings proclamation money per 
day for their services in the field, and that they be reasonable in making their 
draughts and maps. 

There does not seem to have been any definite regulation by which the 
Deputies were to act — each one surveying where he pleased, and as he 
pleased — -until 1785. A division of 4,500 acres was then made and the sur- 
veys of it were to be made subject to the following rules : — 

1st. No survey to be made in quantity of less than 30 Acres. Unless, 
&c. * * SL proviso. 

2nd. All surveys to be returned for the exact quantity, strict measure, 
and no allowance for highways or barrens. 

3rd. No surveys to be made with short courses and frequent angles for 
the sake of leaving out poor land. 

4th. All surveys be plotted and returned according to exact mensuration 
by the chain and observation of the compass, and that no natural bound of 
trees, rocks, &c., be mentioned in the return except in the begmning. 

5th. No long and narrow survey to be made including swamps, rivers. 
&c., unless by particular order of the Board. 

In 1788 there was an addition to the Deputies' instructions requiring 
them to keep a book of all unlbcated lands surveyed, and the survey to be 
returned in one month. No other Deputy-Surveyor was to survey the same 
land — they must be accurate in their surveys, and were prohibited either di- 
rectly or indirectly trafficking in rights of location, or making surveys for 
their own use, either in their own names or in the names of others. 

The rules were as they should be, but many of them soon became a 
dead letter, and the Board paid but little attention to their enforcement — 
especially those requiring them to keep a book — not to survey where other 
Deputies had surveyed, which, indeed, could scarcely be avoided — to be ac- 
curate in their surveys, for it was well understood that many of the surveys 
were made by mapping without the Surveyor even going on the ground — 



41 

and not to locate or traffic in land, for some members of the Board were 
Deputy Surveyors and located their own rights. 

The fourth rule, forbidding that natural bounds be mentioned in the re- 
turn, was a very necessary one to protect the interests of the Board. The 
writer has in mind a very early survey in which a certain tree was designated 
in one of the courses, but about ten chains, or forty rods, has to be added to 
the length of the line mentioned in the return to reach the said tree ; and as 
the Courts hold that natural bounds are to be taken when established and 
undisputed, rather than courses and distances, the land has always been 
held and possessed up to that point, thus taking unfairly from the Board 
a considerable number of acres. Another survey of the same character con- 
taining according to the return about 275 acres, actually contains nearly 
500 acres. Certainly facts not particularly calculated to impress one with 
either the accuracy or honesty of the early Deputy Surveyors. 

On the whole, when a person studies closely the motives and acts of the 
generations of the past, as shown in their daily business life as left by them- 
selves on record, the probability is that he will discover that the enchant- 
ment of the view of the honesty of the olden time so much lauded is caused 
mostly by its distance, and his conclusion will be that human nature was 
about the same a few centuries ago as now ; that the " old folks" were 
about as sharp at a bargain, as avaricious, over-reaching and as fond of the 
English pound, as the younger generations are of the Yankee dollar ; that 
the seed which has developed so largely in this generation was planted and 
tenderly cultivated in those which are gone by. We do not believe the pres- 
ent generation worse than the past, or more the worshipper of mammon, but 
do believe it in many respects — in benevolence and large open-heartedness 
for the suffering of the race — infinitely better. 

But to return. Sometimes when private parties wished to purchase 
large tracts they made direct overtures to the Board. This usually resulted 
in a commission being appointed by the Board to examine the lands and re- 
port as to their value, &c. 

Such a commission was appointed in the year 1764,* Messrs. Delancey 
and Rutherford being the committee, owing to a memorial having be re- 
ceived from Peter Hassenclever setting forth that he had lately arrived from 
Europe with the intention to prosecute the manufacture of iron in America, 
and had accordingly purchased the Ringwood iron works which was sur- 
rounded by a great quantity of vacant land of little or no other use than to 
supply said iron works with wood, and that he was willing to purchase a 
suitable quantity of land on reasonable terms. * * 

On the 14th Sept., 1764, the committee reported that Mr. Hassenclever 
wished 10,000 acres or thereabouts in five or six tracts on Long Pond River, 
not to exceed two miles distant from said river, or two miles from Ringwood 
furnace, and would give at the rate of ^30 per 100 acres. 

On the 1 2th September, 1765, the Committee reported that " agreeably 
to appointment we set out to take a view of the lands Mr. Hassenclever pro- 

• Mln. Council B.— p. 4. 



42 

posed to purchase on both sides of the Pequanack* river." As the features 
of the country are to-day as they were found by this committee over a hun- 
dred years ago, and as it very accurately describes a portion of the Northern 
section of our State, we will quote a part of the report : *' We find the land 
exceedingly rocky and mountainous. The mountains appear to be almost 
inaccessible along the river, some of them very bare of timber, others well 
timbered. In the whole tract we viewed we saw but two small pieces of 
swamp which were both taken up, and in the whole there did not appear to 
be fifty acres of plow land. The mountains * * very rocky and steep 
make up a very great proportion of the whole proposed to be purchased by 
Mr. H. * * From the place we entered upon this view for near three 
miles we could only travel along the edge of the river, the mountains on both 
sides being so rocky and steep that it was impossible to climb up them. * * 
In our opinion the land is entirely unfit for any purpose but that Mr. H. pro- 
poses to employ it in * * it will be for the interest of the Board to ac- 
cept his proposal." The result of which was the purchase of what is known 
as the Long Pond and Ringwood tracts, containing nearly 12,000 acres, by 
Mr. Hassenclever, and on which are many valuable iron mines, which have 
been extensively worked, some ever since that time. 

We will notice one other report of a similar committee, as it shows how 
the best land had been appropriated, and the worst left. It is from the com- 
mittee appointed to view lands which are now parts of the Denmark, Mount 
Hope and Hibernia tracts, a region also very rich in mineral deposits, mag- 
netic iron ore : " Friday, 22 October, 1772, we proceeded to the Middle 
forge and passed the mountain about one and a half miles to the Westward 
of the forge. In passing the hill we found it accessible from the valley and 
that the road had been made part of the way up, and that a great deal of 
wood had been cut and carried away. * * Went on foot and viewed 
Young's ninety-one acre tract (lying) along the South, or Green Mountain. 
This tract takes in much valuable timber by which the mountain is rendered 
almost useless to anybody else. Had these locations been carried up the 
mountain as they ought to have been, the general interest would not suffer as 
it must and has by these irregular surveys. * * We then proceeded up 
the valley, and here we found the same practices, the surveys approaching 
to or running at a greater distance from the mountains as the land was more 
or less timbered and good ; by this means the sides of the mountains that 
are accessible are of little or no value and will never be worth any man's 
while to lay rights on." 

The Committee, Cortlandt Skinner and John Johnson, then went to Hi- 
bernia yV/rwa^^ where they stayed all night. The balance of the report we 
omit as it contains only a description of the mountainous country with which 
we are already familiar. 

The instrument used in making the early surveys was almost exclusively 
the plain compass. The measurements were made by Gunter's chain, The 
bearings were taken by the point of the magnetic needle, which, being sub- 

• The Long Pond Klver. 



43 
ject to many influences to divert it from its true bearing, the courses indica- 
ted and read from it were often very far from true. Especially was this so 
in the Northern and mountainous part of the State where magnetic iron ores 
abound — where the needle is sometimes deflected ten, twenty, and even as 
many as sixty degrees, and where, indeed, it is seldom that it bears the same 
at any two points on a straight line. But this would not have been without 
remedy had the land been correctly surveyed. But some of the locations 
were made by mapping, no surveying done — some of them partially by map- 
ping, and partially by surveying — others again were made by actual surveys, but 
Wxiich were done in the unscientific and incorrect manner hereafter described. 

Owing to this lack of system the difficulty which the modern surveyor 
has to encounter in trying to locate the old surveys in their proper places is 
apparent, especially when to the above statement is added the fact that the 
original measurements were all made without levelling — on the syrface of 
the ground, through valleys, and over plains and mountains. 

Had either surveying or mapping been adhered to, such difficulties 
would not exist, at least to any great extent. If all of the lands had been 
located by mapping, the surveyor in laying them out could turn the angle 
without regard to the needle, and place the lines in their proper places, and 
the true bounds of the lots would be defined : or had they been correctly 
surveyed by the plain compass, he could easily retrace the old lines, as the 
course the needle indicated at the angles at the time the survey was made 
would be the same at all times thereafter (allowing for its well known de- 
clination) even at angles where magnetic ores abounded, if the ground re- 
mained undisturbed. 

But as it is usually impossible to know the manner in which a tract was 
originally located, the resurveys have been made sometimes by the needle, 
and sometimes by angles, as the judgment or inclination of the surveyor has 
prom.pted, and the result has been the clashing of lines, the lapping of tracts, 
quarrels among neighbors, and lawsuits interminable. 

We have in our possession the original manuscript books and surveys 
of several of the old Deputy Surveyors. In one, beginning in 1798 and end- 
ing in 1808, we find many unsurveyed or partially surveyed tracts such as 
already referred to. We copy a couple by way of illustration : — 

" Feb'y i8th, 1807. Surveyed for * * all that tract of vacant land 
situate &c. * * Beginning at a small dog-wood tree being the 3rd corner 
of a tract &c. * * thence (i) N 64*= W, then began at the same place (2) 
N 10" E 1 1 chs. 50 links, (3) S 84° E gch. 90 1. to a white oak by a rock. (4; 
North 39'' W to ist line to about 22 chains, and the last as long again." 

It is self evident that the above is no lot of land at all, only a series of 
lines enclosing nothing, and the farther that the 4th line was extended the 
farther it would be from meeting with the first. But this was a trifling dif- 
ficulty to be overcome by the pioneer surveyor. The return as sent in to the 
Surveyor General, and as the patent for the lot was granted, is as follows : — 

" Beginning at a white oak marked standing at the North East end of 
a large rock * * thence running (i) N 84'' W 9 chs. 90 Iks, (2) S 10° W 
II chs. 50 1., (3) N 64'' W 33 chs, 60 Iks, (4; N 50° E 29 chs. 80 Iks, (5) S 39° 
E 30 chs. 30 Iks to the beginning containing 63 39-100 acres." 



44 
It will be seen that the original starting point was abandoned entirely, 
and the white oak was now made the beginning and all of the courses except 
the first one reversed, which, when the bearing is different, (owing to the 
local attraction,) at the two ends of the same line, locates the survey in an 
entirely different manner, and being certified to by the said Deputy, and 
showing a correct survey on paper, the Surveyor General, as said before, 
granted a patent for the lot. 

As might be expected, the bearings at the angles on the ground to 
make the different lines meet at their proper lengths of chain, are quite dif- 
ferent from the paper bearings, not only the local or mineral attraction 
having to be taken into consideration and allowed for, but also the uneven- 
ness of the surface of the ground, the lot being composed of mountain and 
swamp. What wonder then that when the pugnacious owner of such a sur- 
vey, giving his deed a literal interpretation, and claiming his land in accord- 
ance thereto, even though it conflicts with and takes from the survey of his 
neighbor, which is probably no more correct, that a legal war should ensue, 
or even, indeed, if a personal and physical rencontre should take place as has 
often happened. The above lot has twice been the subject of litigation — 
each time owned by different persons. 

Two days after, the same Deputy Surveyor " surveyed" another lot in 
the same locality beginning at the same white oak tree ; thence running (i) 
North 38 chains, (2) East 13 chains, (3) South —to make 50 acres, at 17 
shillings per acre. The return and patent for this lot appears as follows : — 
I North 39 chains — 2 East 13 chains — 3 South 39 chains — 4 West 13 chains, 
containing 50 70-100 acres — making a complete parallelogram 13 chains 
wide and 39 chains long, the angles being all right angles. .^ 

No doubt the said Deputy supposed that if the time every came for him 
to actually survey the said lot, it would be an easy matter to place so simple 
a survey correctly on the ground, but in the practice, working from the point 
of his needle, he would no doubt have been completely non-plus.sed. The 
peculiarity of the lot is that the ist line runs along the foot of the West side 
of a mountain, the third line along the East side of the same. The second 
hne partly crosses it, and the fourth is on nearly level ground at the foot of 
the point of it. Owing to the irregularities of the ground and the mineral at- 
traction at the angles, he would have found his third line swinging so far to the 
Westward that his fourth line would be only eight, instead of thirteen chains 
long, and if he reversed his fourth line from the beginning, and reversed the third 
also, he would have found the same result happen as to his second line ; that, 
strangely enough, then being only eight chains long from the third to the second 
corner. If the lot is correctly surveyed, and the angles properly turned and 
the full distances given on each line, it comes in contact with other rights. 

In one case the owner does not get his required quantity of land. In 
the other he provokes a conflict with his neighbor if he insists on getting it, 
and then whether he gets his land or not, he inevitably gets a law-suit. 

Sometimes, as we have before remarked, no surveying whatever was 
done, the returns being made entirely by mapping out surveys already lo- 
cated, and mapping lots adjoining to them, and sending them to the office as 



45 

actual surveys and receiving paten's therefor. The above illustrations show 
how difficult it is to properly place such surveys on the ground when at last 
it becomes necessary. 

We have already referred to the loose manner of doing the work when 
surveying was actually done. The following will show the way of doing it : 

The Deputy-Surveyor, when on a land expedition, would sally out on 
horseback, his compass duly boxed, and his chain in his saddle-bags behind 
him. Arriving at the point where the land lay which was to be surveyed, 
and where by previous appointment his assistants were to be found, the first 
step was to cut a straight stick about four feet long, and about an inch and 
a quarter in diameter, for a " Jacob's staff." The bottom of this was sharp- 
ened to fit tightly into a hollow iron socket so that it could be " jabbed" 
deeply enough in the ground to stand perpendicularly, the top was made to 
fit a socket containing a ball so as to level the compass, and on this the com- 
pass was placed. Nine sometimes, sometimes ten, small sticks were cut to 
put down at the ends of the chain in measuring, and a pole about the size of 
a large fishing pole was cut for a flag staff. All things being now ready, the 
compass was placed at the beginning point and the bearing decided on, 
taken, and the flag-man sent ahead and placed in position. The compass 
was then removed to the flag-man's point, but no back sight left at the point 
it was removed from. The bearing was here again taken at the same de- 
gree as before (by the needle's point) and the flag-man again sent forward, 
and this was continued until the survey was completed — the chain-bearers 
following directly after the surveyor as nearly on the line as practicable. 
The necessary result of this mode of surveying without back sights, was, 
that, owing to the local attractions the needle at almost every station where 
bearings were taken would be deflected to the right, or the left, and a zigzag 
line would be run. But the above describes the more accurate manner of 
making the early surveys. Often no flag was used ahead at all The sur- 
veyor would set up his compass, and with the remark that a certain tree, rock, 
or some other object ahead was on the line, or within a rod, or a rod and a 
a half of it, perhaps, on either side, as the case might be, he would direct his 
chain-bearers to " go for it" and they would all start for the place designated. 
On arriving at the point the surveyor would set up his compass again at 
about the suppo.sed spot, and take his bearing, the course again going to, or 
near, some other object ; and perhaps about this time his chain-bearers 
would come up after having made innumerable crooks in the chain in pass- 
ing through brush or swamps, or around rocky ledges, or other natural ob- 
structions, even if they had not gotten some rods off the true line. When it 
was conceded that the chain had been carried " too crooked" an allowance 
would be made by guess " to make the distance about right." And this 
mode would be continued until the lot was completed. 

Still another difficulty and one sometimes almost insurmountable in now 
finding the true location of the early surveys, was the lack of care in the 
surveyors in choosing and designating their beginning points ; and this is, 
at this day, a very fruitful source of litigation, for if the beginning is gone it 
is often next to impossible to tell exactly where the lot was originally placed. 



46 

A favorite beginning point was a tree. Sometimes it was referred to as 
standing so far from some other tree, or object, but often as in a survey now 
before us simply "beginning at a Black oak tree marked," the survey lying 
in Hunterdon County, and it is fair to presume that searching for this Black 
oak tree in Hunterdon County in the year of our Lord 1729, the date of 
the survey, would be fully equal to the task of hunting for the proverbial 
needle in the haystack. But sometimes they began at things even more 
transitory than a live tree, though that was liable to be cut or destroyed at 
any time, for one survey now a hundred years old begins "at an old stump, 
now rotten." Another favorite place for beginning surveys was at the junc- 
tion of streams, and at springs of water, both of which often change much in 
position during a course of years from overflows, or natural washings of the 
stream, especially if they happen to be situated in low, marshy, or sandy 
ground. Often they began at, or so far from, somebody's house, and in many 
instances the house and its former occupants have disappeared, neither leaving 
any trace behind, nor any one now remembering their having ever existed. 

Sometimes as if even the above objects were too permanent, and too eas- 
ily found, a local piece of history was made the starting point, as a survey 
recorded in West Jersey : Beginning at the place where Bill Smith " licked" 
Ed. Brown ; or another of about the same character in East Jersey beginning 
at a black oak " with a knife in it." It is said that when the survey was 
made one of the party drove the blade of his knife in the tree and broke it 
off, hence the record. The tree, the blade, and the parties interested in the 
transaction, are now all gone. We would say here, however, en passant, that 
in our practice we have found many trees marked by the Deputy Surveyor, 
from one hundred to one hundred and fifty years ago, still sound and vigorous 
and showing their scars of record faithfully. 

The portion of the country thus located is not an isolated case. The 
whole of the Northern part of the State was thus surveyed originally ; lots 
lapping on each other the rule, not the exception. The courts dispose of 
laps by giving the land to the holder of the first survey ; but often a large 
portion of another man's land has to be run over for the owner of a given lot 
to find the lines of the remnant of his tract. 

Of course it was just as likely for two surveys to diverge, and run from 
each other, leaving a strip or gore of unlocated land between them, as it was 
for the surveys to lap. This led to the practice of taking up " sweep" surveys, 
some covering as many as twenty-five thousand acres of land — a whole sec- 
tion of country — and then after deducting out all the tracts before located, 
all the balance, including said "gores and strips," became the property of the 
enterprising owner of the sweep survey. 

From all of which the reader by this time must be convinced of the in- 
terminable confusion of the lines of the early surveys of New Jersey. As 
before remarked, had the Lords Proprietors, or after them the Board of Pro- 
prietors, properly surveyed the State as the lands came into demand, all this 
would have been avoided. But it was not done ; and their short-sightedness 
or penuriousness, or both, has entailed on the people of New Jersey, land 
boundary troubles which it will take centuries to obliterate. 



CHAPTER VL 

Miscellaneous. 
State Control of the Boards of Proprietors, and of the Records. — The 
Board and Books During the Revolution. — Timber Thieves. — An- 
ecdotes, &^c., &^c. 



We have already seen that after the surrender of the right of govern- 
ment to the Crown in 1702, the East and West Jersey Proprietors, having 
their offices respectfully in Perth Amboy and Burlington,* exercised no other 
public functions than attending to the business of locating and selling, and 
the general management of their lands. The Governor of the whole prov- 
ince was appointed by the Crown, first in connection with the Province of 
New York, but afterward as a separate colony. The Legislature was chosen 
as heretofore by the people, and sat alternately at Perth Amboy and Bur- 
lington. The first meeting of the Assembly under the authority of the 
Crown was at Perth Amboy, 10 October, 1703. 

The Proprietors had now become, as it were, simply a corporation of 
private citizens. They had been confirmed by the Government in their title 
to their lands, and were protected in their business of dividing and selling it, 
and for the conducting of their business were a law unto themselves ; but be- 
yond this they were entirely subject, as any other citizen, and amenable to 
the laws ; and as on their action depended largely the stability of the land 
titles of the Province for all time, the Legislature early saw the necessity of 
snch legislation as would put their records on not only a permanent, but 
public basis. As early as 1719 an act was passed with the following pre- 
amble : — " Whereas the surveys of lands, and the quantities held thereby in 
this Province, have frequently been uncertain and difficult to be discovered, 
by reason of the otfice of Surveyor General has not been duly established 
and regularly kept within the respective divisions. * * Be it enacted, 
that the Surveyor General of the Eastern division, or his deputy, shall hold 
a public office in the city of Perth Amboy, for all the Eastern division of this 
Province ; and the Surveyor General of the Western division, or his deputy, 
shall hold a public office in Burlington, for the western division of this Prov- 
ince." 

By the further terms of this act the said Surveyors General were em- 
powered to demand, and sue for, if necessary, all books, maps, &c. " which 
may be of general use in proving the rights of the Proprietors, or of persons 

* Burlington was first settled In 1667. PertU Amboy In 1681. 



48 

claiming under them," but they were to redeliver with all convenient speed 
such of them as were the property of particular persons, after they had taken 
an authentic copy of them, or recorded them in their books. The Surveyor 
General was required to give security in the sum of ^looo for the delivering 
up all such records to his successor in office. Said books, &c., to be kept 
in their respective offices " for public use and view." " Such records may 
be pleaded as evidence in the courts," &c. 

It is probable, both from the terms of the foregoing act, and from other 
evidence, that the books of the Proprietors were at this nuicli scattered — 
some, probably in the hands of the different officers, some in the hands of 
individual proprietors. Their early governmental records were also badly 
mixed up with their early land records. Appreciating this state of. affairs, 
we find 22 August, 1725,* the Board of Proprietors ordering an abstract of 
" the records, grants, and all other things concerning titles of lands in the 
Eastern Division of this Province, be made," though like so many of their 
resolutions it seems that the work was not done till some years aftervvards.t 
Here it may be interesting to note the minuteness of detail with which the 
said owners of the Eastern Division of New Jersey dealt out work and sup- 
plies to their subordinates. On the 5th Oct., 1725, they agreed that 6 shil- 
lings per diem be given to Michael Kearney, and 6 shillings per diem to Al- 
exander McDowell, for making an abstract of the records for all the time 
they shall be employed in making same, employing themselves six hours per 
day. The scribes in our public offices of this day would not be enabled to 
support much style, or " sport" to any great extent on the maximum wages 
of one shilling per hour. They would have also been guarded against the 
wasteful use of supplies, for it was at the same time agreed, that " the Treas- 
urer do purchase a ream of good Dutch paper, a large book of ten or twelve 
quires of large paper, quills, and ink-powder for that purpose." 

As still further evidence of how badly the records became mixed we 
find the Board themselves complaining of the (act, as follows : — 

" March 6, 1739, Whereas the Board finds great difficulty and expense 
in settUng their accounts of what lands have been taken up on their respec- 
tive proprieties by reason that the books of records formerly belonging to 
the Proprietors were delivered by Thomas Gordon, Register, to James 
Smith who superseeded said Gordon * * in 171 5. And whereas the 
said James Smith was also Secretary of this Province at the same time, and 
having both those offices kept the books belonging to each without distinc- 
tion, and upon his death the whole past, to the present Secretary, as books 
belonging to the Secretary's office * * it is ordered to demand the books 
of records of Patents, &c. of the Secretary, and that the Register do such 
recording." 

It seems the Proprietors allowed this " mixing" to go on for twenty- 
four years before taking action on the subject. 

A few years after the Revolutionary war the Legislature of New Jersey 
ceased to be migratory, and by act passed Nov. 25, 1790, Trenton became 
the seat of Government for the State, and Perth Amboy and Burlington 

• Minutes Council Book A . 

t The first 10 books In the Proprietors' ofQce In Perth Ainboy are certifled copies of 
the parts desired of books In See'y State's office, at Trentou, transcrlbeii 1T43-1T4T. 



49 

were deprived of the honor (?) they so long held. But the Legislature, still 
with an eye open to the public weal, forgot not the land records in which 
every section of the State was so vitally interested. In 1825 an act was 
passed appointing commissioners to purchase a convenient lot of land m 
Burlmgton, "the title whereof shall be vested in the State of New Jersey, and 
to erect thereon a building of materials not liable to be destroyed by fire 
* * for the safe keeping of the records, writings, maps, &c., belonging to 
the office of the Surveyor General of the W. 1). of this State." Six hundred 
dollars was appropriated for the land and building. After the building was 
completed it was made incumbent on the Surveyor General to remove all 
the books and papers into it. Also Commissioners were appointed by the 
same act to procure land and put up a similar building, at a similar expense, 
at Perth Amboy in the Eastern Division, the same limitations and restric- 
tions to be imposed upon the commissioners as on those of the Western 
Division. The said buildings were both erected, and since their completion 
have been the depositories of the land records of their respective divisions, 
under the keeping of the Boards of Proprietors. (The building now occu- 
pied in Perth Amboy is not the one built in compliance with this act.) 



'J he Board and Books During the Revolution. 

In the War for Independence New Jersey bore even more than her full 
share of the burden. Besides furnishing her whole proportion of men and 
means to carry on the conflict, her soil, lying between New York and Phila- 
delphia, became the tramping ground — the scene of sanguinary battles, and 
continual raids — and subject to rapine and pillage alike from the armed 
enemy, the native tories, and the lawless of our own army ; and owing to 
the peculiar position in which the title to the public lands were placed, no 
new locations of land could be made, for there was no authority from which 
to derive title. The Proprietors as a body were broken up and scattered. 
Those in Europe, and some in this country, espoused the cause of the King. 
Many of those who remained in the Province were loyal to its cause. For 
nine years this chaotic state of affairs continued — from the time of the dis- 
persion of the Board to the time of its again granting patents — barring the 
interests of the people, and the growth of the State. 

On the 19th January, 1776, a survey was recorded, lying in Sussex 
County, in Book S. 7, page 292. The Earl of Stirling Surveyor General. 

In looking casually through the book no person would observe the long 
break between this date, and that of the next survey. No blank space, not 
a word, not even a line drawn to indicate that the next lot was not recorded 
on the morrow. On the 20th of April, 1785, the next survey is recorded, ly- 
ing in Mendom, Morris County, John Rutherfurd, Surveyor General. The 
fact shows somewhat of the character of the men of the times — men of deeds 
more than of words. What a history was made for our State and Nation 
between those two dates so silently passed over ! 

From the record of the " Mmutes of Council," however, we get a glance 
of what the Board of Proprietors did (all that they could do) during these 
years of war, turmoil and confusion. On April 13th, J 776, they held a 



50 

meeting at Perth Amboy. Present: the President, Wm. Burnet, H. John- 
son, J. Johnson, Executor of Andrew Johnson, Henry Cuyler, William 
Bland and John Smith. Ordinary business was transacted. No mention of 
adjournment is made as always heretofore, and the minutes abruptly term- 
inate. Whether when in the midst of their deliberations they were alarmed 
by the British, or whether from some other cause the meeting was so sud- 
denly drawn to a close, we shall never know. 

And the vacation was a long one. What occurred, as to the Board, 
during the time following, we glean from the minutes of a meeting held at 
Princeton, 5 June, 1782. The record is as follows : — 

•' The disorders and confusions that took place on the disputes and war 
between Great Britain and America, and the divided situation of the Pro- 
prietors of the E. D. of N. J. having prevented the regular and stated meet- 
ings of the Board, nine* of the members of the said Board met at the house 
of James Wall's near the Court House at Freehold in the County of Mon- 
mouth on the nth and continued to the 14th of August, 1778, whose pro- 
ceedings were as follows; ' At a special meeting nth Aug. 1778, met by 
public advertisement in the newspapers, present, James Parker, John A. 
Johnston, John Stevens, Junior, Walter Rutherfurd, John Wm. Stevens, 
Burnet, Elias Bland, John L. Johnson, Isaac Sharp, Samuel Sharp.' " 

At this meeting came up the question of parties stealing timber off of 
Propriety lands, and " also having considered that the Surveyor General's 
and Register's office at this present time cannot be made use of (the books 
having been carried away) and having considered what mode in this present 
exigency they should fall upon to insure a title to purchasers of vacant lands, 
as aforesaid (referring to parties who wished to purchase vacant land at 
the salt works on the sea shore), it is agreed and ordered that after sales 
made by agreement or public outcry, a warrant of the survey should issue to 
the purchaser directed to the Surveyor General to la)' out such lands * * 
to be signed by all of the Proprietors here present, and to be minuted in a 
book kept by the clerk till the surveys can pass through the proper offices." 

" The Proprietors here present taking into consideration the apparent ne- 
cessity of their meeting * * it is agreed by all the members present that 
there should be a general meeting of the Proprietors on the 2nd Tuesday in 
September next, the stated day of meeting ; but as it may be dangerous and 
inconvenient to meet at Perth Amboy the stated place, it is agreed they meet 
at New Brunswick." * * 

This meeting never took place, for the minutes proceed : " Afterward 
a number of the members of said Board convened at the house of Jacob Ar- 
nold, Esq., at Morristown, Morris County, 23 April, 1782, when several mat- 
ters were deliberated on and some measures taken * * but their not be- 
ing a sufficient number to form a Board they adjourned to meet at Prince- 
ton the 3rd June, 1782." 

Some met on the third, but there were not a sufficient number of mem- 
bers to form a Board, and they adjourned ftom day to day until a sufficient 
number arrived. At this meeting Robt. Morris and John Rutherfurd ap- 
plied for a seat in the Board. 

• Recites ten. 



51 

When the books of the Proprietor's office were carried awa)' to New 
York, or by whom it was done, the records do not disclose, but no doubt it 
was done by or at the instance of John Smith, the Register, in whose cus- 
tody they were, in New York. We have an interesting report from John 
Rutherfurd of his unsuccessful attempt to get the books back before the 
close of the war. At this meeting he informed the Board that in conse- 
quence of what the Proprietors had agreed to in Morristown, Mr. Stevens 
had obtained a pass from the Government permitting him to go to New 
York for the books and files of papers in the hands of John Smith, Register, 
and contiimed : — 

•' Cientlemen, in pursuance of your instructions, and the permission of 
Gov. Livingstone obtained by Mr. Stevens, I repaired to Elizabethtown the 
loth May, and the next day passed over to Staten Island where Gen'l Skin- 
ner commanded * * and was happy to rind that he saw the propriety of 
sending the Proprietors Books and papers to New Jersey and that he agreed 
to give his consent for that purpose. Gen. Skinner accompanyed me to 
New York and introduced me to John Smyth. * * Mr. Smyth said he 
would act agreeably to the instructions of the Proprietors in town. The 
next day I heard that General Delancey * * was violently opposed to the 
delivery of the books, that he had been round to the different Proprietors to con- 
firm them in his opinion, and had exacted a promise from Mr. Smyth not to 
deliver the papers but with the concurrence of the Proprietors in town. Gen'l 
Delancey was just about sailing for England and lest he should oppose me, 
as there was no hopes of his receeding, I determined to keep my business 
private until his departure. 

*' In a few days I waited on Gen'l Robertson. * * Mr. Smyth de- 
clared that altho he was averse to the measure of sending out the books 
yet still he would not oppose it * * and would act entirely in his official 
capacity as Register of the Proprietors to whom he thought himself amena- 
ble. I then spoke to Stephen Skinner * * Mr. Ashfield * * Heath- 
cote Johnson * * and was opposed. I then called a meeting of them 
* * but they seemed so blinded by passion, and actuated by a reflection 
on their own situation * * they would not hearken to any thing said to 
them. Their chief argument was their estates by law were already con- 
fiscated and all that could be discovered was sold, that their shares of pro- 
priety were alone untouched because the particular parts were unknown and 
that the delivery of the books would tend to designate their shares, &c. &c. 

" As the first mode of application had failed I adopted another. * * 
Mr. Smyth seemed to be actuated entirely by a rectitude of intention. * * 
I had an order signed by nine Proprietors * * authorizing me to go to 
New York to make the requision of the papers. This I showed him as the 
act of the Board of Proprietors and which he a sworn officer of the Board 
was bound to obey. I was happy to find he conceived it his duty to com- 
ply with it. I was for hurrying them from town immediately, but Mr. 
Smyth thinking it incumbent on him to mention it to the other gentlemen, 
they applied to Gov. Franklin and got him to go with them to Sir Guy Carle- 
ton's and Gen'l Robertson's. * * Gen'l Robertson sent for me and said 
he was informed of the order of the Proprietors in New Jersey, and that I 
had acted in a very extraordinary and impudent manner in carrying on a 
secret negotiation between persons in rebellion and others within the Brit- 
tish line and ordered me to desist from any other proceedings."* 

Signed, 
Princeton, June 4, 1782. John Rutherfurd. 

• Minutes of Council B, page 195. 



52 

The next meeting was held in Perth Amboy, 14 Sept., 1784, and the 
Board met again on the 13th of April, 1785, and then the Sur^'eyor General 
and Register laid before the Board a list of the books of Records and min- 
utes of the Proprietors of East New Jersey, consisting of thirty-two books 
which were sent out to the Surveyor General from New York bv Mr. Smvth 
as being all of the books in his custody. 



It seems to be the prevailing sentiment among the earlv .settlers of a 
country that a free and unauthorized use of the timber and wood growing 
on the public domain is not only allowable but justifiable. This idea seems 
not only to get deeply rooted in the minds of the first settlers themselves, 
but is transmitted to succeeding generations, so that as long as the tempta- 
tion continues, it seems impossible to eradicate the practice. Even men 
who pass in the community for good, moral, and religious men, who are in- 
deed upright in their dealings with their neighbors, are often found at the 
practice, and see no particular harm in cutting, usirtg, or carry mg away tim- 
ber from the public lands. And this applies with equal force to-day to New 
Jersey, Tennessee or Minnesota, or to wherever large tracts of land are held 
by the Government, or by any other public proprietors. 

The Proprietors of New Jersey early had cause to complam of this prac- 
tice, and in 1748 appointed a committee to wait upon the General Assem- 
bly to enforce the laws against stealing timber off their lands. In 1761 they 
complain again of the destruction of timber made by saw mills and iron 
works, and appointed trustees to look after it, and to begin prosecutions ; 
and so from time to time we find complaints of the unlawful practice. 

It is not strange that to many of those having such views of the rights 
of the public proprietors the private rights of the owners of large tracts 
were not more sacred in their eyes, especially if the owner was a non- 
resident, and the pilfering could be done with impunity ; and in the wooded 
and mountainous part of the State families have existed for generation after 
generation almost entirely on their thefts of wood, bark, hoop-poles, &c. 

The expertness with which education and long practice has fitted them 
to pursue the business without detection is almost marvelous. 

Bark is often peeled from the trees as high as it can be reached and the 
trees left standing, as the blows from the axe in cutting them down, or the 
falling of the tree, might lead to the thief's detection. Where property has 
been closely watched, the thief has been known to crawl up to a hoop-pole 
and cut it off while kneeling, by a few well directed blows of a sharp hatchet, 
then carefully drawing it down would lie on his back, and pulling the pole 
past him, carefully trim off limb after limb, and thus one pole after another. 

A story is told of John Rutherfurd, who owned many thousand acres of 
the timber lands of Northern New Jersey. He used sometimes to travel 
through his possessions on horseback and alone, prospecting, looking out for 
squatters, &c. On one occasion in passing through a small settlement he 
found the people busily occupied in " raising" a log building. The parties 
and the traveler were unacquainted with each other. Mr. Rutherfurd 
stopped, and, after viewing the proceedings awhile, asked the object for 



53 

which the building was to be used. One of the parties answered, " for a 
church." " Where did you get your logs.?" he asked. "Oh, over the hill 
yonder, out of old Johnny Rutherfurd's woods," was the bold and candid re- 
ply. The old man's countenance remained unmoved, but with a determined 
manner he exclaimed, " I am old Johnny Rutherfurd, and I tell you what it 
is, the only condition on which I'll let you put up this church, and not have 
every one of you indicted, is that your preacher preaches a sermon once ev- 
ery year on the sin of timber stealing," and the old man turned and rode 
away. To the credit of the "churchmen" be it said, they fulfilled their part 
of the contract, and such a sermon was preached every year as long as the 
building was used for a church. 

A story is also told of a hoop-pole thief. Frequent, or in fact continual 
stealing, had entirely obliterated m his mind the distinction as to the owner- 
ship of lands or timber, and from trespassing on the Proprietors, he came to 
stealing from his neighbors, regarding whatever he could lay his hands on, 
without fear of detection, as his own. He had on one occasion cut a large 
load of hoop-poles off the land of a near neighbor, and after carrying them 
out to a by-road for convenient loading on a wagon, he returned home to 
get his team to haul them out to market. During his absence, his neighbor, 
the owner of the poles, happened that way, and discovering the trespassing 
done, to save his property, proceeded to load the poles on his own wagon. 
While thus engaged, the thief, little thinking of the turn affairs had taken, 
drove heedlessly nearly up to the loading team before he discovered it ; but 
it was too late now to retreat. Putting on an innocent face he drove bold- 
ly by his neighbor, and with the remark that farther on Mr. B. had sold him 
a load of wood which he was going to get, he continued his way. Then 
after getting fairly out of sight and hearing, he plied himself to cutting more 
poles, on another man's land, but did not deem it safe to take them out that 
night, so about dusk proceeded with empty wagon to return home. It so hap- 
pened that the neighbor who had taken out the poles, lived some distance 
from Ghe public road, and out of sight of it, and thinking to take his load to 
the market on the morrow, had unhitched his team at the mouth of his lane, 
leaving his loaded wagon standing there in readiness for the morning. And 
this was the situation, when tlie thief, bewailing his misfortune in losing the 
poles he had worked so hard to cut, arrived at the lane. It took him but 
a moment to decide. With silence and dexterity the load was quickly trans- 
ferred to his own wagon, and soon he was on his way to market, and by the 
time the next morning that his non-plussed, disappointed and vengeance- 
swearing neighbor, was taking home his empty wagon, he had the proceeds 
of his ill-gotten booty in his pocket. 

Times change ! and of this fact one is forcibly reminded in looking 
through old documents and records, and how often does this thought recur 
at the frequency of the reference in the old papers to negro slavery. We 
can at the present time hardly realize to what an extent this became an " in- 
stitution" in New Jersey. Wills bequeathing them, bills of sale selling them, 
indentures binding them, papers advertising absconding ones, are met with 
constantly among old documents. But it gives us all the more respect for 



54 

their masters when we find that even in spite of its being so intimately 
woven with their social system and every day life, they could see and ap- 
preciate its evils, and that by mutual consent, without outside pressure, more 
than six decades ago, they instituted means to permanently extinguish the 
system among them. 

But though times change, it is often not difficuk to discover in some 
habit or custom of the past, the germ of a present usage. For instance, on 
Oct. 31. 1730, liberty was granted to John Johnston (and others named) "for 
one year, or thereafter during the Proprietors pleasure, to hunt and hawk 
within certain designated boundaries, reserving to the Proprietors and their 
servants like privilege, in consideration to deliver to said Proprietors at Am- 
boy ferry a fat doe at every November meeting, and a good fat turkey, or 
wild gray goose, to be delivered at the March meeting." Now it is well 
known that the Council of Proprietors to this day are famous for good din- 
ners at the time of their stated meetings ; and who knows but the 
yearly fat doc, or turkey or wild goose, was only the forerunner of the pres- 
ent more elaborate repast ; and in the license to John Johnson to hunt and 
hawk, we may detect something akin to our modern gan)e laws. 

Yes, times and customs change .' sometimes perhaps not for the better 
in particular things ; but on the whole we believe the world is advancing, 
not only in material, but in moral developeraent. Even the Board of Pro- 
prietors in 1772 gave their public sanction to a scheme which the better 
class of men, and the laws of most of the States, now condemn as an im- 
moral practice; for " the President laid before the Board an account of Hen- 
drick Fisher, Esq., one of the managers of the late Provincial lottery, of 
tickets purchased therein by the late and present Treasurer by order of the 
Board for their use, the balance being ^94 los., which was ordered to be 
paid." How much the whole investment was we do not know, but the 
•" balance" seems a goodly sum to expend for such a purpose. 

In some things, however, we are in these days but little, if any, ahead 
-of the olden time. 

About 1680, George Marcellas was granted a license to trade with the 
Indians, " providing he does not sell them any kinds of liquors, or strong 
drink by Retaille to be drunk, or spent by them in his house, but may sell 
it to them by wholesale in cask to be carried by them into the country, and 
there to be spent upon their own plantations." 

How much are our legislators in advance of this now, when in their 
tender solicitude for the peace and comfort of the rum-seller they give him a 
license to sell, but the liquor not to be drunk on the premises — the drunken 
quarrelsomeness to be vented on the innocent wife and family of the drinker 
at home .'' 

When we come down to every day life and get at the direct habits of the 
people we find things very much then as now. In the private books of 
James Alexander, a Proprietor, and once Surveyor General, we find the 
commonplace entry May i, 1716, "I owe Wm. Thompson for a pair of 
boots. I had also a pair of hupples and another pair of boots in place of the 



55 

former because they were very bad, which upon selling the first he promised 
to give me if they proved not good, ^i 5s. 9|d." 

Disputes and sharp dealing were known then as now in spite of the 
"honesty of the olden time," as witness the following from the same books : — 

" March, 17 18. I am owing to Edward Vaughan for books bought of 
him at the price they could be bought at in England with the expense at 
50 per cent, which amounted to about £21 sterling, but by not knowing the 
true prices gave hand for ^50 York which he insists to have with interest — 
therefore its dependency in chancery." 

And how like the present day is this entry: — "Sept. 28, 1819. Gave 
my wife £^j 8s in gold." And how the modern lawyer will recognize the 
following: — " Feb'y 15, 1731, Paulus Vanderbeek retains James Alexander 
as his Attorney to defend (a certain ejectment suit) and now gives a pistol 
retainer and promises to pay all necessary disbursements and fees." 

Until railroads became the medium of transportation for farm produce, 
the crops grown in Sussex County and in the Southern part of Orange Coun- 
ty, New York, were hauled by team to New York City. Down the valley of 
the Pequanac River, over the old Paterson and Hamburg Turnpike road to 
the head of Pompton Val'ey, and then by the Pompton and Newark Turn- 
pike through Bloomfield and Newark to New York, was a favorite route. 
In the Fall and Winter for the first three days of the week the road was lit- 
erally alive with the teams of the farmers going down with butter, grain, flour, 
pork, (Sic, and the last three days witnessed their return. A rough, free and 
easy, rollicking set of yeomen they were. Taverns, as they were then called, 
were plenty along the route, and " applejack" was in those times pure, at 
about a shilling per quart, and Boniface prospered. But with all their love 
and habit of drinking they were not by any means drunkards, or spend- 
thrifts. They bought their whiskey by the quart as a matter of economy, 
and it was seldom they became too drunk to attend to business. Their 
horses' feed, and sometimes their own, they carried with them. One shilling 
per night was the price of lodging, and one shilling per meal if they patron- 
ized the landlord's table ; also one shilling per night for stable room for their 
team if they found their own horse feed. A country tavern bar-room in the 
evening, then, presented a rough, but comfortable appearance. Congregated 
on a cold night, around the large open fireplace on which hissed and crackled 
a cart load of oak, or hickory, sending out a cheering warmth and light ; the 
crowd partook of their hot-toddy, told their tales, and cracked their jokes, 
and good nature and mirth generally prevailed. 

Frequently odd and eccentric characters were among the party whose 
presence would add zest to the mirth of the occasion. Such an oddity was 
old Buckeye D K , who has left a large and respectable posterity be- 
hind him. Large and portly, fond of fun and good cheer, his appearance 
among the crowd was always hailed with delight, and was a signal for grand 
sport. Eccentric in habit and dress, he always in cold weather wore an 
overcoat reaching to his heels, a piece of cart-rope tied around his waist 
answering the end of belt or buttons, and beneath its capacious folds he 
could stow away an unlimited quantity of " old apple" without getting un- 



56 

balanced by his load, and then, when in good spirits, with stories and jokes, 
often practical and rough, but always good natured, the fun for the crowd 
went on late into the night. A story is told of his good-heartedness. On 
one occasion he took a load of pork to New York, and the price not suiting 
him; he vowed that he would throw it off the docks before he would let the 
speculators have it at their own price, and none who knew old Buckeye 
doubted that he would be as good as his word. In the meantime, while try- 
ing to bring the buyers to terms, a woman whose appearance denoted pov- 
erty, came to his wagon and timidly inquired the price of his pork. Through 
a little questioning he found out where she lived, and insisted on her buying 
a hog, and he would take it home for her, She protested that she had not 
money to pay for so much, but he insisted, and finally prevailed on her to 
mount the wagon. On the way the woman still protested, and Buckeye 
still insisted that she had money enough until they arrived at her door. Then 
it was the work of but a few moments for the powerful countryman to trans- 
fer two of his finest porkers to the poor woman's kitchen, and while she de- 
clared that she could not pay for them, he mounted his w agon and drove 
away in high glee at the " joke" he had played upon her. 

On another occasion an old friend from " down the country" hearing that 
Buckeye had a yoke of oxxn for sale, drove to his place to barter for them. 
He arrived about the middle of the afternoon, but could not prevail on Buck- 
eye to " talk oxen" or show them to him, he saying that there was time 
enough in the morning, and the balance of the day was spent in keeping the 
darkies (all the large farmers in New Jersey had a plenty of blacks seventy- 
five years ago) carrying up cider and applejack. On the next morning with- 
out saying a word about the cattle. Buckeye ordered up his team and invited 
his friend to ride with him and see some of the country. The objections of 
the friend and his assertions that business made it necessary for him to be 
at home, made no impression on the host — all went for nothing with Buckeye 
and the whole day was spent in riding from tavern to tavern, and in having 
what Buckeye called a " roaring good time." On one pretext and another 
he thus detained his old farmer friend until on the fourth day he finally sold 
him the oxen at a fair price, and the old man hurried off as rapidly as possi- 
ble to get beyond reach of Buckeye's exuberant hospitality. 

But those days have long since gone by. The old taverns are mostly 
closed, many of them entirely gone ; but few old fashioned fire-places remain. 
The valley of the Pequanac now re-echoes the whistle of the locomotive, in- 
stead of the Sussex teamster ; and the sound of the fast rolling car wheels has 
taken the place of the slow-rumbling and hard creaking over the rocky road of 
the heavily loaded Sussex wagon ; and with the change the genus " Sussex 
teamster" has died out — his race is extinct. 

And thus we have briefly traced from the beginning the history of the 
early surveys and early days of East New Jersey. If we have added anything 
to the knowledge already possessed of the settlement and surveying of the 
country, and have interested the reader, in this we find both a reason and 
excuse for having written. 






